8.09.25 – APFA CLT Base Brief – September 2025 Staffing and Allocations

September 2025 CLT Staffing and Allocations

Saturday, August 9, 2025

We had our monthly call with the company to discuss the September bid month. September marks the end of summer flying and transitions to the fall/winter schedule. In Charlotte (CLT), the only reductions we will see are the elimination of some banks of flights and the seasonal conclusion of two IPD flights.

For September, our total flight hours are 178,658, compared to 183,328 in August. This is a decrease of roughly 5,000 hours. Notably, one daily IPD flight accounts for 5,000 hours each month, and since we are losing two IPD flights, this highlights the impact.

Despite this, it’s clear that Charlotte has a strong flight schedule and is not as affected by the cuts reported in the media. This reflects the financial and strategic strength of our base. Even with the reductions in flight banks, we maintain a robust schedule.

It’s the Reserve numbers that don’t make sense in this equation. We have roughly the same amount of time, but our line average is down to 76.2. Why? Because our reserve numbers have dropped to 681 or 19.9%. Pulling more people off reserve and making more lines means lower time lines are available to more people. We do not expect the higher seniority to be held to the 78 minimum constraint that we see in the summer when our reserve numbers get closer to the 1,052 like we saw in July. We all know we had a staffing problem in July, why? Meltdowns were exacerbated by the company, not because we didn’t have enough reserves. Keep this in mind next year, the company will use their failures this year to justify over 30% reserve numbers next July, just like they did this year for running a lackluster operation last summer. While other bases enjoy 14% reserves or lower, we have to be satisfied with 19.9%. Only PHX has reserve numbers worse than us even with stats that show it’s unnecessary and the result of poor construction and planning.

The company did offer 126 VLOAs that were all taken. If your status is tentative reserve, you will not be put on reserve now. Tentative reserve is a reflection of the VLOAs which we have never had a problem filling.

These numbers are a welcome relief, but the trip distribution and construction mirror the same thing we have been seeing for over a year now. September should be a month for experimentation with the construction model to see what works better for both sides. We saw none of that. They continued with the same model, multiple legs, more sit times, long duty days, shorter rest. Fragile trips. The distribution is the same as August, still not as bad as we saw in June and July, but no real improvements.

We do have the Labor Day holiday on the 1st, so not a huge pulldown on that Monday. With the reduction of banks on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, the peak days for trips are Sundays and Thursdays. The rest of the days are flat and even. This should make it more realistic to even out your trips for the month. The peak day (and most likely candidate for a coverage needed day) is Thursday, the 14th. With reduced banks and the even spikes, our month looks like a heart monitor, very predictable on the peaks and valleys.

The fact that they have no intention to change the model has forced many to abandon a strategy of building a good line in PBS. Even high time flyers are bidding low and counting on building their line as the month progresses through TTS and ETB. With so many systems trips each day and the trips breaking so easily, this strategy is a viable alternative and works for some. It also cuts out the high time flyers from evening out PBS TCRs and leaves more people to be forced into higher TCRs month to month. Full circle for those who remember line bidding and the daily bid sheet. Wasn’t PBS supposed to address this and fix a lot of the day to day reschedules that caused the problems? Full circle.

Our trips break down as:

• 1 days will make up 25% of our flying (Slightly up)
• 2 days will make up 15% of our flying (Slightly down)
• 2/3 days will make up 13% of our flying (Same)
• 3 days will make up 31% of our flying (Slightly up)
• 3/4 days will make up 2% of our flying (Slightly down)
• 4 days will make up 3% of our flying (slightly down)
• ODANs will make up 6.5% of our flying (Same)
• Red Eyes are coming in at 2% of our flying (Same)
• We have a few more Bullets and a few less Pink Eyes, but they come in at less than 1% of our flying.
• ATH and CDG end early in the month.

Our one days are still strong with 29% of them being 4 leggers. They still have not addressed the sit times in between the turns on the 4 leggers.

The 2 days and 3 days are not pretty. Multiple leg days and long sit times. 23% of our total trips have sit times over 2+30 minutes and some type of penalty pay built in. This rig is in real time, so it is eliminated if your flight is running late and there is no long sit. Guess they plan on running late to cut this cost.

The largest percentage of trips are the 3 days, and they are plagued with the most problems. Sit times, multiple legs, long days and short nights are the cornerstone of the 3-day trips.

The 2/3 and 3/4 days remain at 15% of our trips. The only anomaly we have started to see is the 3/4 days are starting to become non-commutable. The actual 4 days are more commutable, don’t understand why the 3/4 days are shifting.

There are the same amount of ODANs, but more actual trips for the month. This appears as if the number of ODANs has been reduced when we actually have the same ones we have in August, just more trips in the total trip pool.

RDU has the staple LHR. Don’t forget there is a satellite only 2 hours away with a nice IPD trip once we have more seasonal cuts to the IPD trips.

September 2025 Bidding Timeline

Remember, September is a 31-day month for bidding purposes. This spreads out the time just a little more and adds a reserve day. This accounts for some of the reduced reserve numbers. With the influx of new hires last spring up to June, the reserve cut off will be March 24th, 2022.

October of last year saw some substantial increases to the schedule that were a surprise for a Fall/Winter schedule. The company has said they do not expect that to happen this year. While we continue to see announcements in the press on reducing our schedule, the company maintains, outside of strategic cuts around the network, what we see in general are seasonal cuts. From our perspective, Charlotte remains a key piece of the financial success of the entire company, and we are not seeing major cutbacks. With a short-haul entrenched network, we remain a cornerstone of the financial stability of the entire system. We just wish management would see this and recognize the employees that have made this possible.

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]