7.06.25 – APFA DFW Base Brief – August 2025 Staffing and Allocations

August 2025 DFW Staffing and Allocations

Sunday, July 6, 2025

Overall, we noted a negative trend in trip quality across the bid sheet: longer duty periods, increased sit times, and shorter layovers (sometimes after very long duty periods). The company cited shifts in flight schedules across the system that disrupted the cadences and resulted in some of these patterns. We requested efforts be made to repair the disruptions, but we will have to see how that pans out for September.

Discussion of the Month:

Reserve! This month’s topic that’s hotter than a blacktop road in Death Valley during the peak of summer. The basics….The seniority of those rotating onto Reserve for August was a shock for DFW to absorb.

First off, Reserve has been reduced from last month by 2.1%. Additionally we are 0.5% lower year over year from August 2024. As you can see from the charts we are navigating an unusual summer. Reduced hours for our base even though system hours are up slightly.  Bank cancellations on 5 out of 7 days a week has thrown a wrench into our flying and pairing construction. The DFW FA population has been stagnant, and the changing landscape of rotation and transfers has resulted in a large negative impact to our base.

During the past month, we received many questions about what caused DFW Reserve numbers to increase and push into more senior territory. While we initially planned to discuss Reserve influences separately, the heavy concern expressed by the base this month persuaded us to provide a more comprehensive view right away and dive deeper in the coming months on specific items that may warrant further explanation. Our goal is to provide insight into some of the variables that affect those Reserve numbers. While none of these items carry an absolute value, there are a few issues that are weighed more heavily than others. Likewise, some factors are strictly data-based while others are more subjective. Fluctuations can skew numbers, negatively impacting the line and the monthly battle for a mutually acceptable solution continues. Your union leadership meets regularly with departments at the “crystal palace” to advocate for DFW Flight Attendants: fighting for reductions of RSV headcount and improved pairing construction. We credit their willingness to discuss and evaluate our suggestions regularly and last year yielded some good news as percentages were much better: more in line with system averages. 2025 however, has had its challenges but there has been some ongoing constructive conversation. Any and all solutions must always conform to the current CBA. We are aware of poor trip construction and other quality of work life issues that impact your career and we are here to help and communicate these concerns to the appropriate individuals and departments.

Individual drivers of Reserve headcount change on a regular basis and they affect each base differently. The following are some of the key factors, however they are not in any order of importance nor is this list exhaustive as other variables could influence a particular monthly solution. The company reviews historical data month to month, year over year, and may go further back depending on the factor.

• Weather/IROPS/ATC
• Sick calls (aka absenteeism)
• Legalities
• Leaves/Emergency Off
• Open Time Build
• Unscheduled Aircraft out of Service
• Operational Dependency

Operational Need: PRIORITY #1………DFW, YOU ARE THE STRONGEST LINK. We all receive regular emails, CCI messages, Jetwire headlines, etc. that tout how important we are to the success of the airline. If DFW succeeds, the whole system succeeds. If DFW falters, the entire system feels the impact. This is where we get dinged the hardest on our Reserve numbers. DFW is a MEGA hub and on any given day 40% of the daily flying passes through our airport. Our summer schedule has over 900 flights a day with 2/3rds of those being mainline flights. The company deems it necessary to have a higher supply of Reserves at our base to cover short falls and issues that arise surrounding all flying that passes through our hub. Due to our sheer size and geographical location, DFW Flight Attendants are utilized to cover other areas of the system quickly and efficiently. We see this both through line holder usage via UBL and excessive RSV usage to repair broken sequences.

While we insist numbers caused by this driver could still be reduced the company is unwilling to take this step for fear of limiting themselves with a controllable rescue to a singular or system break down. In other words, the DFW RSV list is an extension of the entire system as a safety net. We will continue to meet with the departments overseeing this and work towards a solution that benefits your quality of work life. There is progress—albeit slow, and we enjoy an open line of communication.

Absenteeism/Sick Calls: Hopefully this is self-explanatory, but it must be mentioned and it provides data that is difficult to contest. In 2024, DFW absenteeism was consistently running at or below the system average for both line holders and Reserves. DFW Flight Attendants proved month after month that they remained readily available and dependable to the company. Thus, in 2024, Reserve percentage slowly reduced closer to system levels. 2025 however is unfortunately telling a different story. The metrics for the first 5 months have been much worse than previous years for the same time period.  Call out rates are 5-6% higher for 4 out of the first 5 months. When the analysts see this trend, they react by placing more Flight Attendants on RSV to cover the sick calls to preserve the operation. This also negatively impacts line holders with increased line averages to handle the same flying thus reducing flexibility, creating a snowball effect. While life throws wrenches into our plans and health issues arise that we can’t always control, it is important to remind each other to take care of ourselves. Good rest, good nutrition, and mental health support are areas we can always remind our fellow FAs to keep on the front burner. When we show the company we are consistently reliable, they lose ground when we demand to see this driver less influential on our total numbers. Absenteeism is one of the most critical drivers this year contributing to the current increase in our Reserve headcount. This is further compounded by the lack of population increase at our base as well as some of the newer hires reaching rotations with different LH/RSV proportions. We have seen some transfers but new-hire-out-of-training additions to our base have been very low recently.

Weather: We all know Mother Nature is unpredictable, but there are patterns for certain regions: snowstorms in the north (BOS/ORD/LGA/DCA), hurricanes in the south (MIA), spring/summer thunderstorms more prevalent east of the Rockies (DFW for sure); just to name a few. You can see how the weather driver would affect some bases more than others based on location, time of the year, and longtime weather history. While the examples pinpoint a base that may experience a particular phenomenon that issue could drive numbers elsewhere higher to offset the impact. Here is where our geographical location contributes to rescuing a weather affected breakdown that is historically charted at other bases.

ATC: Examples that quickly come to mind are slot-controlled airports like DCA and LGA, or the North Atlantic flight “tracks” used for east and westbound traffic for all airlines. Losing or missing a slot can impact the operation and the need for crew replacement.

DFW will always have higher numbers because of its importance to the entire system. When DFW RSV numbers are within a percentage point of the system average we are doing really well. Our short-term goal is to return to those more palatable numbers. That was the case for most of last year but currently the metrics have recently pushed us 2.5% higher and this is affecting everyone’s flying. Our base has a lot to look forward to with more flying and possible head count increases in the future. Let’s make sure that plan stays on track.

Important Dates:

• August Contractual Month runs from August 1 – August 30 (30 days)
• Schedule change occurs on August 6^th. DFW will operate nine daily banks on Thursdays and Sundays, and eight daily banks on Monday-Wednesday, and Friday-Saturday.
• July Incentive Point / Critical Period: July 1 – July 7During 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.

Special Events in August:

• August 17, 21-22: MSN – Epic Conference
• August 21-22, 24 through September 2: RNO – Burning Man
• August 20-21, 24: MHK – College Football
• August 28, 30: ACT – College Football
• August 29, 31: GSP, CMH, TLH – College Footballl

PBS Preliminary Manning Plan, DFW – August 2025:

System-wide Reserve saw a percentage decrease of 1.6 from July. We were pleased to see DFW’s Reserve percentage drop 2.1%, bringing us within 2% of the system-wide average—a move in the right direction. However, due to changes in Reserve rotations, transfers, and other variables discussed in the brief, we still saw many pulled back onto Reserve who hadn’t served in several years, which ended up feeling like the wrong direction. We will continue to push for improvements to our Reserve numbers. The line average decreased significantly as summer peak travel winds down, dropping from 82.5 in July to 78.5 for August.

Crew Planning:

ODANs account for 7.6% of all NB sequences with approximately 63 ODANs originating each day.

Narrow-body (3-5 FA) Construction Sched Duty Length:

• < 8 Hours 45.3%
• 8-10 Hours 26.3%
• 10-12 Hours 24.3%
• > 12 Hours 4.1%

Sched Block in Duty: 

• < 5 Hours 40.3%
• 5-7 Hours 41.0%
• 7-9 Hours 17.5%
• > 9 Hours 1.2%

Sched Legs in Duty: 

• 1: 31.6%
• 2: 50.5%
• 3: 16.6%
• 4: 1.3%

Sched Layover Rest:

• <= 11 Hours 0.1%
• 11-12 Hours 3.3%
• 12-14 Hours 29.3%
• 14-16 Hours 20.5%
• 16-18 Hours 16.7%
• 18-20 Hours 9.9%
• 20-24 Hours 8.4%
• >= 24 Hours 11.8%

Sched Sits Between Flts:

• 2-2.5 Hours 12.4%
• 2.5-3 Hours 9.5%
• > 3 Hours 3.7%

We hope this helps answer your questions and please let us know if you desire a more in-depth look at any or all the above.

In Unity,

Robin Reitz
APFA DFW Base President

Luis Vasquez
APFA DFW Base Vice President

APFA DFW Base Council Reps