Feb. 11--United Airlines and one of its unions struck a deal to avoid April 1 layoffs of nearly 700 flight attendants.
The agreement ensures that "no flight attendant is forced out on the street without a paycheck," Veda Shook, Association of Flight Attendants International president, said in a statement.
United said in January that it would involuntarily furlough 688 flight attendants because it had too many United flight attendants but sometimes too few on the Continental Airlines side. The two sets of flight attendants belong to the same national union but work separately under different union contracts as talks continue with United on a joint labor deal.
United and Continental merged in 2010 but have not yet merged all aspects of the airlines.
A deal struck in recent days allows United flight attendants to "cross over" to the Continental side yet retain and accrue seniority, pay and vacation, according an Association of Flight Attendants statement. Details of how United flight attendants would cross over were a sticking point in earlier talks that led to public tension between the union and United.
Those who do not participate in voluntary furloughs or the crossover will retain seniority and are entitled to be recalled, according to the union.
"This agreement provides for a reasonable solution that mitigates involuntary furloughs, ensuring that all flight attendants continue to advance their careers at United Airlines," said Greg Davidowitch, Association of Flight Attendants president at pre-merger United.
"We are pleased we came to an agreement that will benefit our flight attendants," said United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy.
Cupid cargo. This is peak time for shipping one kind of cargo on American Airlines -- flowers for Valentine's Day.
Last year, the airline shipped more than 1.5 million pounds of flowers through O'Hare International Airport, with 64,000 pounds shipped during the Valentine's Day season through its Chicago hub, the airline said.
Three-fourths of flowers shipped in on American came from the Netherlands, while three-fourths of those shipped out went to Japan, the airline said.
Costly weather. Weather-related flight disruptions nationwide in January cost passengers an estimated $2.5 billion, according to masFlight, a data and software company specializing in airline operations.
Besides lost productivity and such additional expenses as hotel rooms and meals, canceled flights added about 18 hours to individual passenger travel times, the company said. Disruptions cost airlines $75 million to $150 million, it said.
About 30 million passengers faced canceled and delayed flights in January. U.S. airlines canceled 49,000 flights and delayed an additional 300,000 during the month.
Acting as one. American Airlines and US Airways have linked their combined network through code-sharing, in which each airline can sell tickets issued by the other carrier using its own code and flight number.
Starting last week, customers could combine flights operated by each airline on a single itinerary, except for a few international flights to be added later. The airlines officially merged in December to create the world's largest carrier.
United's on-time mark is off. United Continental Holdings, parent of United Airlines, said Monday its on-time performance worldwide tanked during storm-plagued January, compared with the year before, and its total passenger traffic decreased.
On-time performance for the month was 71.1 percent, a decline from 82.8 percent in January 2013. United's total traffic decreased 1.6 percent, dipping domestically and internationally.
Total available seats in January decreased 2.8 percent, year over year, while planes were 1 percent more full.
New flights to Oakland, Calif., Madrid. Ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines recently announced new daily nonstop service between O'Hare and Oakland International Airport, starting May 1. Meanwhile, Spanish carrier Iberia Airlines recently said it will increase the frequency of flights to 10 a week from seven this summer out of O'Hare to Madrid Barajas Airport.
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