4.06.26 – APFA DCA Base Brief – May 2026 Staffing and Allocations

May 2026 DCA Staffing and Allocations

Monday, April 6, 2026

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

Tentative Flight Attendants whose preference was Lineholder in the LRD process.
Reserve Flight Attendants who toggled to Pref LH in the LRD who were unable to hold Lineholder status in LRD.
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.

55,907 total flying hours (DCA, IAD, BWI) (+1677 hours month -over-month) (+3661 hour year-over-year)

Year-over-year block hours has increased by 7.2% and headcount has increased by 34 Flight Attendants.

May is not a flex month
Contractual targeted range 70-90 hours
Opening line average 79.5 hours
DCA’s most senior reserve for April has a system seniority number of 26847 (12 Feb 2025)
No VLOA’s
37 New Hires (4 new hire classes) (2 classes will bid in PBS and 2 classes will be assigned schedules)
Most senior Reserve is seniority 26,793 (Feb 5, 2025)

Important Dates

May Bid Month: May 2- June 1
Schedule Change: May 7 and May 21
Kentucky Derby: May 2
Cinco de Mayo: May 5
Mother’s Day: Sunday, May 10
Memorial Day: Monday, May 25

Allocations Notes for April

Total sequences 904 (DCA, IAD, BWI):
- 4 FA sequences: 487 total
- 3 FA sequences: 417 total
DCA Sequences: 843
ODANS:
- BOS operates 13 days
- BDL operates 2 days
- BTV operates 12 days
- BUF operates 3 days
- CHS operates 12 days
- JAX operates 13 days
- RDU operates 10 days
- SYR operates 3 days
DCA
- Charter/honor flights: 13130, 13132, 13179, 13184, 13248, 13257, 13286 13296, 13403, 13436, 13443, 13505, 13731, 13732
- LAX high time turns operates 31 days (no change of aircraft and one hour on ground)
- PHX high time one days operates 30 days (no change of aircraft and one hour on ground)
- PHX ‘pink eye’ 31 days
- NAS turn operates 30 days
- Canada layovers: YYC, YVR, YYZ
- NIPD Layovers: ANU, AUA, BDA, CUR, KIN, NAS, MGA, POS, PUJ, SAP, STX
- Five sequences with a Spanish Speaker
BWI
- 47 sequences
- 3339 flying hours
- DFW one days (6 AM report operates 19 days) (2:59 PM report operates 12 days)
- No Canada or NIPD layovers
IAD
- 14 sequences
- LAX ‘pink eye’ operates 20 days
- High time LAX 2-days with a 24 hour layover
- 13 NIPD sequences
- 1 MBJ layover

Sequences with Sit Times of 2.31 Hours or More

DCA: 269
BWI: 17
IAD: 5

Scheduled Duty Days:

<8 hours: 47.3%
8-10 hours: 26.7%
10-12 hours: 21.8%
>12 hours: 4.2%

Scheduled Legs in Duty Day:

1-leg: 34.5%
2-legs: 51.1%
3-legs: 13.3%
4-legs: 1.1%

Scheduled Layover Rest:

< 11 hours: 0.1%
11-12 hours: 4.1%
12-14 hours: 29.5%
14-16 hours: 20.1%
18-20 hours: 9.4%
20-24 hours: 7.6%
>24 hours: 12.0%

Scheduled Sit Times:

2-2.5 hours: 13.6%
2.5-3 hours: 9.4%
>3 hours: 2.6%

We hear your feedback and have asked the Allocations team to continue building high-time Las Vegas turns. We have also requested additional Florida turns on the Airbus A319, both in the morning and afternoon.

We will continue advocating for more one-day sequences departing from BWI and IAD. For May, we are pleased to see both morning and afternoon one-day DFW turns available out of BWI.

Additionally, as all of our Flight Attendants are qualified on widebody aircraft, we believe there is an opportunity to incorporate more widebody flying downline—both domestically and internationally—and we will continue to push for these opportunities.

Please continue sharing your feedback on allocations—both what’s working and what isn’t. Your input allows us to approach the company with clear, data-driven requests for change.

The preliminary line average for May 2026 is projected at 79.5 hours. When bidding PBS, please keep in mind that constraints may occur at certain line values depending on seniority, so bid accordingly.

For reference, in May 2025 at DCA:

A minimum constraint of 70 hours applied at system seniority 10,347
A second constraint required a minimum of 78 hours at system seniority 22,847

While these seniority numbers are from last year, they provide a useful comparison for where constraints may fall with a similar line average. Many factors influence the need for constraints, including block hours versus headcount, vacation levels, and Flight Attendant bidding patterns (high-time lines versus average or lower-value lines).

As summer flying begins and block hours increase, we may see similar line averages and reserve percentages throughout the season.

We remain committed to advocating for lower line averages and reduced reserve headcount.

May 2026 Bidding Timelines