11.05.25 – APFA CLT Base Brief – December 2025 Staffing and Allocations

December 2025 CLT Staffing and Allocations

Wednesday, November 5, 2025

We held our monthly call to discuss the December schedule. December is unique because we have a reduced winter schedule for the first half of the month and a holiday schedule for the second half. Similar to November, a significant percentage of trips are scheduled after December 19. As a result, additional coverage will be required for assignments in the latter part of the month more than in the first half.

We have 186,895 hours, almost the same as November, the only difference is December is a 30-day contractual month. This is the same amount of flying as August and actually 30,000 more hours than last year. The difference between a summer schedule and a holiday schedule has to do with the loss of our IPD flying during the winter. Without IPD, the company is adding as much domestic time as they can to capitalize on holiday demand and fully utilize the airport operation to maximize our schedule.

There are no VLOAs for December. Our reserve numbers are down from last year but are still high. We anticipated the company would go for larger numbers like they do every year. Even with a proven track record that the Holiday/Incentive pay works, the company insists on keeping the numbers high in the holiday months. We anticipate larger numbers in January just to cover the first few days of the month. The fact that the company continues to have a large amount of trips in the first few days of every month continues to be problematic for reducing the reserve numbers. We are essentially putting extra reserves on just to cover a few days out of each month. The reserve cut off will be April 14th, 2022.

The Key to the system in December is the banks of flying. The first half of the month is the winter schedule cuts that eliminate bank 9 from Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Friday and some cuts in flying on Saturdays. This is where we see the ebb and flow of trips and what days have more trips than others. Starting on the 19th, we will have the full 9 banks of flying and time added to those banks as well. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will run a reduced schedule with the elimination of banks 8 and 9 and Christmas day will have bank one eliminated. This is consistent with what we do on every holiday, we pull the schedule way back as there is little demand. The 26th roars back with full banks and flights added making it the peak day of the month for departing trips. The month ends with the elimination of bank 9 on the 31st. This makes for more peak days after the 19th than in the first half of the month. If you’re looking to try and get a balanced month, the peak days will be the 2nd, the 4th, 14th and then the holiday days of the 19th, 20th, 21st and the 26th, 27th and 28th. If you bid to where they need you, you will have a better chance of having a more balanced month.

Our trips break down as:

• 1 days will make up 17% of our trips. (Down)
• 2 days will make up 23% of our trips (Same)
• 2/3 days will make up 14% of our trips (Same)
• 3 days will make up 31% of our trips (Up)
• 3/4 days will make up 1.7% of our flying. (Same)
• 4 days will make up 3.5% of our flying (About the same)
• ODANs remain strong at 6% of our trips (Slightly down)
• Red eyes will make up 3% of our flying (A few more)
• Pink eyes and bullets actually increased but came in at under 1% of our total flying.

The winter schedule presents some interesting challenges, and the holiday schedule throws havoc into those challenges. When the system has a large amount of time put into a smaller timeframe, it wants to spit out 4 days to cover the additional time. The company puts constraints on the programming, so the computer wants to spit out 3 days’ worth hard time. The company tries to put further constraints to build as many 1 and 2 days as possible, but those 1 and 2 days have to be productive (Hard time trips). This is what we have been seeing, more 3-day trips being built into the sequences and we see the same problem for Christmas or when any month is lopsided with the time distribution.

The problems are unique to the first half of the month where the schedule is reduced. Cutting banks out of the system or reducing flying in a bank, makes it harder to build trips like ODANs, Pink Eyes and Bullets. This is where we see the 2/3 days and 3/4  days increase. It’s not possible to fly a crew into a city (Usually a low frequency or small city that has a seasonal reduction) and build a legal flight out the next day. That is where the computer leaves the crew for a double overnight and you have 30 hours in Toledo. As long as the next duty period can be productive (Hard time), they will build the trip. This is why we see more double overnights in the winter season. We see a lot of these trips in the first half of December. Reduced banks can also affect the sit time, rest times, aircraft swaps, and peculiar routings that may be flying usually reserved for another base. This may account for the Honolulu trip we have built into a 3 day in December. This flight is out of LAX but is built into a CLT pairing. When we see these anomalies, the root cause may not always be apparent.

The 1 days took a hit, but there was more niche flying for trips like pink eyes and Bullets. The schedule/bank reduction had a lot to do with the loss. When they try and break up 3 days, it does not always equate to a 1 day and a 2 day. The changes may only allow that trip to become two unproductive 2 days. The company would rather keep the productive 3 day over unproductive 1 or 2 days.

The 2 days remain strong; the numbers we have in December are similar to August. The 2 days actually looked a lot better than what we saw in September.

The 3 days are up due to the increase in time at the end of the month. The 3 days also have the most sit time built in. 26% of our trips have a built in pay penalty of more than 2+30 sit time. The key to more 3 days is we don’t want all 3 and 4 days that go out on the 23rd. With the pull down spanning the 24th and 25th, there is not a disproportional amount of trips that have you gone for the entire holiday. It also creates 2/3 days with long layovers. If you want to fly for the additional pay or are forced into flying, you have the option of planning a double layover with family or friends if that works.

The 4 days are slightly up, again due to the holiday schedule. There is really no improvement to the quality of the 4days, they still have the commutability issue, and we are seeing more legs built in than we did last summer. Keep in mind, we have more domestic flying than we did in the summer. IPD is productive, domestic usually has multiple legs built in to make it productive. The company has a cap on what they will accept for unproductive trips, building more legs into a trip makes it more productive. The 3/4 days are at about the same level and do not have the same issues on commuting, but they may pay less because they do not have four duty periods. It is still a productive trip just paying the hard time, but it means you are at work for more days for less money.

The ODANs are an unproductive trip. They are all rig or soft time. The company accepts the unproductive nature of an ODAN because it cleans up a lot of other problems caused with the last flight out and the first flight of the day in many stations. Charlotte is blessed (Or cursed) with a healthy amount of ODANs. Some bases have none or only a few due to seasonal schedules and geographic location. We are in a position that the computer wants to build more of them, and the company has the system programmed to keep them below 8% because of the unproductive nature of the trip. We came in slightly down on ODANs, most of this is due to the bank reductions on the last and first banks.

There were a few more Red Eyes but still hovering at 3%. The Red Eyes have become less of a problem because the vast majority step out to the West Coast rather than have a full turn on the front end. We still see a few with turns on the front end and 1 or 2 that step back to the East Coast on the return flight. We expect to see these in open time and have the same problem they did when we had more of them. We also saw a few pink eyes being built into 3-day trips. These were very problematic when we had them before and we will keep an eye on them to see if there is a desire for a few of these.

The Pink Eyes and Bullets came back with just a few more added. Closer to the summer numbers, but not a total elimination that we feared. Once again, schedule changes affect these types of trips and their numbers.

December 2025 Bidding Timeline

Overall, the December schedule looks fairly good. While there are some challenges during the bidding process, our line average remains low, and our staffing levels are high. There is also holiday pay and a well-distributed number of trips. It’s important to bid strategically and pay attention to your TCR, as this is not a typical month. Additionally, PBS will include coverage-needed dates in the second half of the month. If you don’t specify your preferences clearly, the system may assign more hours in the latter part of the month where coverage is needed.

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]