American's Unions Fight over Jump Seat

American Airlines Inc. flight attendants have reacted angrily to a proposal from the carrier's pilots that would let off-duty pilots use jump seats set aside for flight attendants.

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants said the pilots don't have the right to demand that they use the crew jump seats.

"Please have confidence that the AA Flight Attendant cabin jump seat is ours: yours and mine," APFA president Tommie Hutto-Blake told members in a hotline message Saturday. "We negotiated this item long ago, and it will remain a part of our current contract in the future."

The pilots' union, the Allied Pilots Association, had asked for the right to use the flight attendants' jump seats for off-duty pilots commuting to or from work, if any such seats were going unused by flight attendants.

The jump seats would be available to pilots on any flight in American's worldwide network.

The pilots' union made the jump-seat request part of a list of concessions it wants from the airline, in exchange for agreeing to fly a proposed route between Dallas/Fort Worth and Beijing.

The pilots' union has said the flight would exceed the 141/2-hour limit for scheduled flight times and the 16-hour limit for time on duty, as spelled out in the union contract.

American is competing against three other U.S. carriers for a new U.S.-China route, with the U.S. Department of Transportation expected to pick a winner by Dec. 31.

Gregg Overman, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, said the union respects other groups' contracts and has asked the flight attendants' union to provide documentation that spells out control of the jump seats.

"We've reviewed their contract, and it's apparent to us that this jump seat belongs to the company to manage, and that's why we're negotiating with management," he said.

In e-mails to their members over the weekend, leaders at several union pilot bases stressed that they intended to take jump seats only if no flight attendant needed them.

But Ms. Hutto-Blake, in her message to flight attendants, said the flight attendants negotiated exclusive use of the jump seats in 1976.

She said the attendants' manual lists those "not authorized for cabin jump-seat travel at any time," with pilots named first.

She said she had asked the pilots' union to drop that request and said the proposal "will only produce ill will among two workgroups."

Competition for empty seats is often keen among pilots and flight attendants, with many living in different cities than the bases from which they work.

That competition has only increased as American's airplanes have grown fuller since the 1990s, with fewer empty crew or passenger seats available for employees to claim.

In 1984, for example, American filled 57.1 percent of its seats with paying passengers. Last year, that load factor had grown to 78.9 percent.

Mr. Overman said the pilots' union is simply asking for "a seat that otherwise would go empty and would leave a commuting pilot at the gate, which to us makes no sense."

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