12.08.25 – APFA DCA Base Brief – January 2026 Staffing and Allocations

January 2026 DCA Staffing and Allocations

Monday, December 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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48,307 total flying hours (DCA, IAD, BWI) (-774 month-over-month) (+5,576 year-over-year).

Year-over-year block hours has increased by 11.5% and headcount has increased by 89 Flight Attendants.

• January is not a flex month.
• Contractual targeted range: 70–90 hours.
• Opening line average: 76.7 hours.
• DCA’s most senior reserve for January has a system seniority number of 25,989 (April 4, 2024)
• 16 VLOA’s offered

Important Dates

• January Bid Month: January 1 – January 30
• New Year’s Day – Thursday, January 1
• Schedule Change – January 6
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day – Monday, January 19

Incentive Point and Holiday Pay 2025 – 2026

Allocations Notes for January

• Total sequences 788 (DCA, IAD, BWI):
  • 4 FA sequences: 482 total
  • 3 FA sequences: 306 total
• DCA Sequences: 718
• ODANS:
  • BOS operates 22 days
  • BDL operates 3 days
  • BOS (737) operates 6 days
  • PWM operates 3 days
  • RDU operates 5 days
• DCA
  • No charter/honor flights
  • LAX high time turns operates 30 days
  • PHX ‘pink eye’ operates  30 days
  • Spanish speaker positions operating 6 sequences
  •  Canada layovers: YVR operates 2 days
  •  NIPD Layovers: 2 ANA, 1 BDA, 5 CUN, 41CUR, 2 KIN, 3 NAS, 1 PUJ, 1 QRO, 1 STI, 11 STT, 6 SDQ
• BWI
  • 48 sequences
  • BWI-CLT turn   1 day only
  • DFW turns 25 days
  • 13- 2-day trips -domestic
  • 21-3 -day trips- domestic
  • 11- sequences with NIPD RONS
• IAD
  • 22 sequences
  • No1-days
  • No Canada layovers
  • 3- 2-day trips -domestic
  • 10- 3-day trips-domestic
  • 5 -trips  NIPD

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Sequences with Sit Times of 2.31 Hours or More

• DCA: 235
• BWI: 21
• IAD: 6

Scheduled Duty Days:

• <8 hours: 48.9%
• 8-10 hours: 24.1%
• 10-12 hours: 22.7%
• >12 hours: 4.3%

Scheduled Legs in Duty Day:

• 1-leg: 35.5%
• 2-legs: 47.7%
• 3-legs: 14.7%
• 4-legs: 1.1%

Scheduled Layover Rest:

• < 11 hours: 0.2%
• 11-12 hours: 7.7%
• 12-14 hours: 31.5%
• 16-18 hours: 16.0%
• >24 hours: 10.1%

Scheduled Sit Times:

• 2-2.5 hours: 12.3%
• 2.5-3 hours: 9.2%
• >3 hours: 3.2%

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January 2026 Bidding Timelines

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January 2026 System Reserve Seniority

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Inflight Quarterly Training 4Q2025

• Operational Reliability – 4Q25
• Preventing Sexual Harassment
• Basic Data Cybersecurity Awareness
• Security Management System (SeMS)
• oneworld alliance

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

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Congratulations to our Off Probation classes 25-12 and 25-13!

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Allocations Update

As we continue to advocate for better trips out of DCA and the co-terminals please keep your APFA union leadership informed of the improvements and preferences you’d like to see

We have advocated for

• Fewer three-day trips
• More two -day trips
• Additional West Coast layover cities
• The return of the high -time Las Vegas turns in conjunction with our high time LAX turn
• More speaker positions to expand NIPD flying
• Incorporating widebody flying into our bid sheet with trips picked up down line now that our flight attendants are fully trained on wide body aircraft
• Additional ODAN sequences
• One day turns for IAD/ BWI
• Less 4 leg days and more!

Please continue to keep us aware of what works and what isn’t working in our bid sheet!

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Wishing all our incredible DCA flight attendants a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a joyful New Year, THANK YOU for your hard work dedication and the professionalism you bring to our base every day.  I hope this season brings you rest, happiness and time with the people who matter most

Here’s to a Safe Healthy and Successful year ahead!

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]