6.09.25 – APFA CLT Base Brief – July 2025 Staffing and Allocations

July 2025 CLT Staffing and Allocations

Monday, June 9, 2025

We had our monthly call to discuss the trips for July. As expected, July is almost identical to June with the exception of the holiday on the 4^th. We anticipate August will look much like June and July as this is the peak of the summer flying and our schedule is set. The only bad thing about July is the high reserve numbers and the high line average. This will set a higher line constraint for more people and force people into trips they don’t want. Our flight hours are 190,722, which is down from the 191,196 we had last month. This is a fraction of time lost and due to a pulldown of trips on the 4^th. Our banks will stay the same with 9 banks but cuts in the evening banks and cuts on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The schedule we ran last year was not realistic and we had a dismal performance as a result. We started a better more manageable schedule in May and will continue this throughout the rest of the summer. As a result of better planning, our May numbers soared, and we had one of our best performance months in a long time. We can see this continuing through the rest of the summer, but crew planning bases this year’s numbers on last year’s performance and panics. They set the reserve numbers high just to cover the first week and the holiday based on last year’s numbers when the usage from the past few months tells a different story. The cut off for reserve will be March 9^th, 2015.

No Voluntary Leaves of Absence (VLOAs) are being offered at any base for July 2025.

We will be getting 2 classes of New Hires in July, about 61 in total. This would normally provide a break in seniority for rotation, but the company continues to use the new people as cannon fodder and not include them in the counts. The addition of new hires should count as their entry on certain days of the month has a direct effect on staffing needs. So, the coverage needed days and assignment of trips and reserve days on duty are not accurate as they do not reflect the actual staffing.

The time/trip departures are stacked at the beginning of the month right before the holiday with high numbers of trips on the 2nd and 3rd. The 4th will eliminate most of the flying in the last 2 banks as with most holidays and the weekend after the holiday, 5th and 6th have a healthy portion of trips. There are only a few spikes on Sundays the remainder of the month as the flying is pretty level with the exceptions of the reductions on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. It should be obvious where the coverage needed days will fall.

The continued cry for higher reserve numbers is unacceptable. The numbers should be based on month-over-month usage, not year over year. Putting extra reserves on to cover a holiday is expected, but to set the numbers at 30% would show there is something else driving the need for this many reserves. We have been saying that it is the fragile nature of the system and trip construction model. Even with a stronger system schedule, the fragile nature of our trips continues to drive the need, but a review of the last few months tells a different story.

The recent right sizing of our banks and flight schedule has had dramatic effects on our ability to operate a reliable schedule. The numbers don’t lie; May was a very good showing year over year in just about every category. The recovery rate after a weather event was much better, the on-time performance was much better (5 more minutes to board), PAX were able to make their connections, extra gates as overflow, better maintenance recovery, fewer lost bags, and a higher customer satisfaction rate. What they are doing this summer is different than last summer and it shows yet scheduling and planning want to use last year’s numbers and continue to increase our reserve numbers. This obsession with high reserve numbers in Charlotte all comes back to the fragile nature of the trip construction model and an old model of planning.

Here’s the breakdown of our trips:

• 1-days will make up 21% of our trips. (Same)
• 2-days will make up 11% of our trips (Down)
• 2/3-Days will make up 11.5% of our trips (Down)
• 3-days will make up 40% of our trips (Up)
• 3/4-Days will make up 2% of our trips (Same)
• 4-days will make up 4% of our trips (Same)
• ODANs will make up 5% of our trips (Up)
• Red Eyes will make up 2% of our trips (Up)
• Pink Eyes and Bullets (All night turns) are less than 1% of our trips (2 less Bullets)

The 1-days may have a few turns added to Antigua at the end of July and into August because of the Carnival festival. The rest of the 1 days are much of the same thing we have been seeing in May and June. Only 25% of these were the one leggers as boarding pay is starting to take effect and some of our short haul flying is going back to Express.

The 2 days got cut again. When they want to cram time into the trips, the optimizer tends to spit out 3 days. The 2 days take the hardest hit. High line averages and packing time into trips is their idea of productivity, not ours.

The 3-days have peaked at 40%. The 3 and 2/3 days make up over 50% of our total flying. The optimizer believes they can cut synthetic or rig time with these types of trips. When you have a holiday month with several schedule changes in it, the push is to cover the changes with multiple day trips. This has back fired on the company in December in the past, but they continue to follow this strategy in July.

The 2/3 and 3/4-days are slightly lower but still make up almost 14% of our flying. These remain popular until something goes wrong with the trip and reschedules are necessary. Scheduling feels the long breaks allow them more rescheduling room, which we don’t agree with.

The 4 days are the same with a better commutability percentage than last winter.

ODANs are the highest we have seen since November of last year. There are more positions because of the larger aircraft being used. When we have 9 banks, it’s easier to build these trips. We have the most ODANs because of our geographic location on the East coast and have not felt the crunch of the new contractual limitations.

The Red Eyes are slightly up, with a full schedule system wide, we have more night flying from the West Coast to feed our morning banks in the Hubs. The summer demand for travel allows us to fill these seats and offer more of this type of flying. The Bullets and Pink eyes are about the same with just a few missing due to schedule changes.

Our IPD is in full swing with 10 flights, no plans to bring the 787 to CLT (Still some local logistical item that don’t allow it) and we should be seeing the 321XLR on domestic routes later in the year. Once this aircraft is certified to fly across the pond, it will be utilized in NY and BOS first. This may free up other wide bodies and create more transatlantic flying in the future (If demand dictates).

31% of our trips still have sit times over 2+30 hours and pay the additional contractual penalty. There are still no plans to cut this as we are still being “Co-paired” with the pilots as much as possible. Keep in mind, the sit pay is actual, if you get in early, you get a few additional minutes of sit rig. This may be a mindset the company wants to motivate on time performance, but when the bottom line is cost, eventually the company will try and cut this cost. They won’t be able to help themselves.

July 2025 Bidding Timelines

---

Just a few reminders that come up in July. The 1^st is part of June but is included in the critical period for attendance points and bonus points. The critical period runs from July 1 to July 7.

During the July Critical Period, which is from July 1 to July 7, if you complete all operational assignments (sequences, airport standby assignments, Reserve Availability Periods (RAPs), and special assignments) without any absences or removals (such as Sick, FMLA, Jury Duty, Military, Personal, Bereavement, etc.), including pre-planned absences and removals, you will earn one (1) incentive point. These incentive points will help reduce future point-generating dependability events.

You can earn up to three (3) incentive points per year, and there is no limit on the total number of incentive points you can accumulate, and they do not expire.

The majority of time is on the first 2 days of the month, these are more likely to be the coverage needed days, along with bidding into the peaks, a good bidding strategy can play into the needs of the company and help even out the month for commuters. July is a challenging month as the holiday is at the beginning of the month. 1/2-month logic should not apply; it should be front to end. The optimizer will want to push trips where they need you, bid into the peaks at the end of the month and you may have a better chance of getting the holiday week off.

Take care of yourselves and each other.

The Charlotte APFA Team

In Solidarity,

Scott Hazlewood
APFA CLT Base President
[email protected]

Frank Cagle
APFA CLT Base Vice President
[email protected]