2.08.25 – APFA DCA Base Brief – March 2025 Staffing and Allocations

March 2025 Staffing and Allocations

Saturday, February 8, 2025

When PBS processing begins, if additional Lineholders are needed, those with Reserve status will be changed to Lineholder status in the following order:

1. Tentative Flight Attendants whose preference was Lineholder in the LRD process.
2. Reserve Flight Attendants who toggled to Pref LH in the LRD who were unable to hold Lineholder status in LRD.
3. Most junior Reserve Flight Attendants involuntarily moved to Lineholder status after all the above have been utilized.

Important: If you are in one of these 3 categories above, you will want to bid 7 layers of Reserve and 7 layers of Lineholder in PBS.

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• DCA: 43,087
• IAD: 1,641
• BWI: 3,351

48,079 total flying hours (DCA, IAD, BWI) ((+ 2,651 (month -over month) (+ 3,608 year-over- year)

IAD flying hours are trending in the right direction with an increase of 256 block hours in March compared to last month, as we’ve stated we remain committed to advocating for an increase in block hours from the coterminal.

Year over year block hours have increased by 9.9% the highest percentage increase among all crew bases this is an encouraging trend as we continue to push for more flying opportunities, but we do understand after the recent event causing alarm of the increased traffic flow into DCA , we may have to brace for a slight decrease over all airlines that fly in to DCA.

Looking ahead the next schedule change will take effect on March 6th followed by the summer schedule adjustment on March 30^th. As we gear up for the busy spring break and summer travel period you can expect an increase in reserve numbers and a higher line average but as always, we remain committed to advocating for keeping those numbers as low as possible!

• March will not be a flex month
• The contractual targeted credit range default is 70 to 90 with an opening line average of 79.2 down from last March 2024 which was 82.1
• Reserve percentage is down .6 from March of 2024
• DCA March most senior reserve starting at 24749 18May2023

March Events and Timelines

• Ash Wednesday: March 5
• Daylight Saving Time: March 9
• St. Patrick’s Day: March 17
• First Day of Spring: March 20

Allocations Notes for March

• Total 761 sequences (DCA, IAD, BWI)
• ODANS have increased:
  • CLT operates 27 days
  • BOS operates 29 days
  • BDL operates 3 days
• LAS high time turns operates 4 days
• LAX high time turns operates 26 days
• LAX 2days operate 6 days
• PHX ‘pink eye’ operates 30 days
• DCA NIPD overnights ANU, AUA, BDA, BGI, BJX, CUN, CUR, KIN, SAL.STX, SJU
• DCA DFW AM operate 26 days
• DCA DFW PM turns operate 26 days
• DCA FLL AM turns operates 29 days
• DCA FLL PM turns operate 30 days
• DCA Canada RON’s YYZ, YVR, YYC
• BWI 45 sequences
• IAD  27 sequences
• BWI DFW turns 30 days
• No charter/honor flights
• 6 Spanish Speaker sequences
• 218 Boeing MAX trips

We have learned that mixed widebody sequences are being built for domestic flying in other crew bases and will call for this type of mixed flying for the DCA Flight Attendants.

Mixed flying would be in example, the first leg of your sequence on a 737 you will work to a hub city, change aircraft and board a widebody aircraft to fly that segment. The bid positions will remain the same when you join the down line crew to make up the crew compliment on 777 or 787 series.

We believe we can also be positioned to fly IPD trips since all DCA flight attendants are qualified on all aircraft in the system!

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Scheduled Duty Days:

• <8 hours: 45.5%
• 8-10 hours: 25.8%
• 0-12 hours: 23.3%
• >12 hours: 5.4%

Scheduled Legs in Duty Day:

• 1-leg: 33.4%
• 2-legs: 48.9%
• 3-legs: 16.5%
• 4-legs: 1.2%

Scheduled Layover Rest:

• < 11 hours: 0.3%
• 11-12 hours: 6.4%
• 12-14 hours: 27.2%
• 16-18 hours: 16.4%
• >24 hours: 13.2%

Scheduled Sit Times:

• 2-2.5 hours: 11.4%
• 2.5-3 hours: 9.3%
• >3 hours: 3.1%

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March 2025 Bidding Timelines

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March 2025 System Reserve Seniority

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New Hires Are Coming …. New Hires Are Coming!

It’s that time of year when new hire classes begin arriving in March, we’re excited to welcome 35 new hires with indoctrination days taking place each Monday throughout the month.  March 3, 21 new hires will officially join the ranks at DCA.

New hires joining in March will not yet have the ability to bid in PBS and will be assigned a reserve line, with the implementation of our new contractual language they will be subject to up to two years of straight reserve, if needed.

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2025-26 Annual Vacation Bidding

The primary round of bidding will close on Wednesday, February 26th at 12:00 PM (CT).

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• Operational Reliability
• Enhancing UMNR Procedures with MyFlight
• Your Intent, Your Impact
• Data Privacy Training and Privacy Policy Acknowledgement
• Privacy, Risk, and Trust
• Keeping American Secure – Insider Threat

This quarterly training must be completed by Monday, March 17 at 23:59 (CT) to avoid a Missed Assignment (MA).

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IAD Parking Hangtag Issue Update

We recently held a DRC with the company regarding our grievance over the insufficient and distribution of IAD parking hangtags, a company facilitator did not agree to our request to supply all those who applied a hangtag, but instead offered to redistribute the current hangtags handed out of seniority order to those senior FA on the list , this was the companies solution to the seniority violation; after reviewing the proposal -I have rejected it to not set a precedent going forward on the language in crew accommodations section 4 -parking. If the company violated the language than they should make it right by supplying additional hangtags to those who requested one!

The grievance will now move to the APFA SBA department for further review with the company and may ultimately be addressed at QSB’s (Quarterly System Board).

We will keep you posted but as for now if you don’t have a hangtag for IAD parking the company is requesting you pay to park and be reimbursed.

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I want to take a moment to acknowledge the deep sorrow we are all feeling over the tragic crash of flight 5342 into the Potomac. This heartbreaking event has impacted our entire aviation family, and I want to recognize the incredible strength and unity shown by so many in the wake of this tragedy, to everyone who has come together to support our union brothers and sisters and the passenger’s friends and families your compassion has been truly remarkable.

I also want to extend my deepest gratitude to all the responders who assisted in every way including APFA, AA management, the CARE team, EAP, and the Aetna Clinicians ,to name a few, in times like this we lean on one another for strength and this moment has shown how deeply connected we all are.

We will never forget those we have lost, and our hearts and prayers remain with their families and loved ones- we are stronger together!

In Solidarity,

John Pennel
APFA DCA Base President
[email protected]

Dianne Britton
APFA DCA Base Vice President
[email protected]

Lisa Barnes
APFA DCA Base Council Representative – Allocations
[email protected]