2.04.23 – APFA ORD Base Brief – March 2023 Staffing and Allocations

Saturday, February 4, 2023

March 2023 Staffing and Allocations

Happy February, Chicago! What a start to the week! Dallas had a winter storm that lasted several days and caused complete chaos throughout the system. If you experienced an issue with your schedule or a hotel/limo debacle, please follow up with APFA using the following forms:

• Hotel and Transportation Feedback Form
• Rescheduling Issues Form
• Scheduling System Issues Report Form

A weather event does not allow the company to violate your contract. The APFA is here to fight for you, but we must know what’s going on out there. If we only hear about random posts on social media, we will not have the details and data needed to stop the violations.

The March staffing and allocations call was held Friday morning. Here are some highlights:

• Chicago maintains the SEA-LHR trip for the month of March
• FCO and CDG resume daily departures starting March 26
• LHR 46 starts March 25, and LHR 90, 98 starting March 26
• Domestic 787 will fly MIA turn daily until March 25, a DFW 2day daily until March 23, and a few random turns
• Chicago can expect approximately 25 new hires from classes 23-01, 23-02, and 15 from 23-03

Important dates for March:

• Daylight Saving Time begins March 12

Staffing

The systemwide Reserve percentage for March is 19.8%. Chicago is at 19.0%. This is 2% higher year over year, even though our headcount for the same period was similar. This percentage is too high, and we expressed that on the staffing call. Absenteeism is cited as one factor affecting Reserve percentage, and ORD numbers could be better. But we also believe the number of new hire FAs in base impacts Reserve absenteeism. We’ve looked at the bases currently getting the most new hires, and they have consistently lower Reserve absenteeism rates than ORD, along with a Reserve percentage 2-3% below ORD. It will be a never-ending battle if we continue only to see a trickle of new hires getting based here.

The expected line average for Chicago at PBS open is 80.1. The systemwide average is 80.4. But wait for the good news…the line average is down 0.8 hours (yes, that’s zero point 8) because there is “significantly” less vacation in March. I did not hear all bases challenge the high line average, but ORD did! We can expect minimum constraints in PBS again.

Trip construction:

• 1-day: 29% in March vs 30% in February
• 2-day: 30% in March vs 26% in February
• 3-day: 34% in March vs 37% in February
• 4plus-day: 7% in March vs 7% in February
• ODAN Starts per day: 13.46 in March vs 12.7 in February

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PBS Preliminary Manning Plan

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APFA Contract ACTION Team Sign Up

Please be kind to one another! Stay safe.

In Solidarity,

Susan Wroble
APFA ORD Base President
(630) 802-2268
[email protected]

Dray Howard
APFA ORD Base Vice President
(630) 215-8410
[email protected]

Justin Patterson
APFA ORD Base Council Representative
(509) 720-0067
[email protected]