AirTran Pilots Ratify New Contract

Pilots at AirTran Airways ratified a new five-year collective bargaining agreement Nov. 19 that increases pay by as much as 26% for the most-senior first officers and as much as 10% for captains, a spokesman for the AirTran unit of the Air Line Pilots Association says. AirTran pilot pay scales have not increased since the last contract was signed in 2001. The contract became amendable in 2005, but the airline and pilots have been negotiating on a new deal for more than five years. Jim Morris, a captain and the AirTran ALPA spokesman, says the new pay scale increase brings AirTran pilot pay to the middle of the pack among U.S. major airlines. But the pilots should see another pay increase within the next two years if Southwest’s proposed acquisition of AirTran goes through; Southwest has said it would bring AirTran’s pilots up to its pay scale, which remains higher. Morris said the new contract also includes an increase in the company’s contribution to 401(k) retirement plans and some quality-of-life improvements, such as minimum days off and reserve crew scheduling transparency. The pilots’ flight-duty limits did not change, but there were some changes to eliminate "inefficiencies" in the scheduling system, Morris says. That may be what AirTran is referring to when it talks about productivity “enhancements” in the deal. More than 93% of eligible pilots voted on the agreement, and 87% of those voted in favor of the deal. AirTran, however, still is facing difficulties in contract negotiations with attendants, who plan to picket outside AirTran’s Atlanta hub on Nov. 24. Contract negotiations with attendants began in December 2007, and the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA recently asked the National Mediation Board to begin mediating the talks. “Management has worked with its pilots to negotiate an acceptable contract to work under through the Southwest merger process—but refuses to offer some of the same fair work rules to its flight attendants,” complains Alison Head, president of the AirTran unit of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.