10.04.23 – APFA ORD Base Brief – November 2023 Staffing and Allocations

November 2023 ORD Staffing and Allocations

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Can you believe it is already time to bid for November? 2024 will be here before we know it! Hopefully with a new contract!

Continue to give a warm Chicago welcome to our new hire Flight Attendants!

Critical Period – Attendance

November has a critical period for bidding. The Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving through the Sunday after – November 22nd – 26th is considered “critical.” Chargeable absences during this period will have one additional attendance point.

During this same period, if you work all of your assignments and do not have an absence, you will be given an incentive credit applied to future absences. Read about the critical period on page 7 of the Flight Attendant Attendance & Performance Program.

Holiday Pay

There are four days in November which qualify for Holiday Pay: Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Day, Sunday following Thanksgiving & Monday following Thanksgiving.

Allocations

We are going to start with allocations this month. The trip construction is way out of whack in comparison to what Chicago likes to fly.  We love our early 2-days and ODANs.

The rationale given for the severe fluctuation in our trip construction was the banks in ORD fluctuated throughout the month more than other bases, which created more constraints within the system.

The company was going to try and manually break up some 3-day sequences and increase the number of 2-days. Unfortunately, this will not greatly impact the makeup of our numbers for November. We appreciate them trying.

For December and future months, we are hoping the system constraints will help trip construction be more balanced with the type of flying Chicago prefers.

We will continue to converse with the Allocations team in hopes of a more balanced bid sheet moving forward.

The number of ODANs dropped again, going down to just over an average of 7 starts per day. Along with everything else, we hope these numbers will be improved in the coming months.  We will continue to address your concerns.

Staffing

74 new hires will be sent to Chicago in November, 41 of them available after PBS opens. They will still be included in the RSV numbers.

The reserve percentage for Chicago is 16.6% vs system average of 17.2%

The expected line average for Chicago at PBS open is expected to be 79.3 vs the system average of 79.9.

Sequence Starts Per Day 

Trip Construction

• 1-day: 19% in November vs 24% in October
• 2-day: 22% in November vs 29% in October
• 3-day: 55% in November vs 43% in October
• 4plus-day: 4% in November vs. 4% in October
• ODAN Starts per day:  7.6% in November vs 15.3 in October

PBS Preliminary Manning Plan

In Solidarity,

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

Justin Patterson
APFA ORD Base Vice President
(509) 720-0067
[email protected]