Re: American Airlines is closing its San Francisco crew base and asking 400 flight attendants to leave California or leave the airline

[Mary E. Junck]

In article <ss4oaf$dal3$6...@news.freedyn.de>
Lawless democrats <une...@law.usa> wrote:
>
> Nobody want to do business in a filthy faggot run city.
>

American Airlines is closing its San Francisco base, potentially
displacing 400 flight attendants.

Two-thirds have worked for the airline for 13 years or more,
according to union calculations.

10 flight attendants told Insider a myriad of factors make it
difficult to leave the Bay Area.

The mass email hit some flight attendants' inboxes mid-flight.

"Today it's with great regret that I let you know about our
decision to close the SFO flight attendant base," American
Airlines executive Brady Byrnes said in the September memo
obtained by Insider.

In closing its San Francisco base, citing economic factors and
shifting customer demand, American presented 400 flight
attendants with a choice that many said felt impossible to make:
leave the airline or leave the state.

The base is home to some of the carrier's most senior flight
attendants, two-thirds of whom have been at the airline for 13
years or more, according to the union representing American
Airlines flight attendants. By January 31, they must select an
airport from a list of the airline's hubs outside of California
to work out of. For those who can't or won't, the only options
are to retire early (if eligible) or resign, the union told
Insider.

In interviews, 10 SFO-based flight attendants told Insider that
a myriad of factors make it difficult to leave the Bay Area.
(Some have asked to remain anonymous in fear of losing their
jobs, but Insider verified their identities and employment.)
Some are single moms, some are battling health issues, some have
children with special needs. Others have divorced spouses with
joint custody of their children, elderly parents, or partners
who can't uproot their careers.

"This is home," said Marcia Brown, a flight attendant who has
been based in San Francisco for 38 years.

An American Airlines spokesperson said it decided to no longer
have flight attendants based in San Francisco based on
logistical factors including the airline's changing size,
shifting customer demand, and fleet changes.

"As we look at the future of our network, we expect that San
Francisco will maintain the same level of flying it does today,
but there are no plans to grow San Francisco and no future
flying prospects based on our current network strategy," they
said.

Most SFO-based routes rank poorly for profitability compared to
other routes across American's network, according to aviation
analytics firm Cirium. This year, the carrier cut the volume of
flights out of San Francisco by approximately one-third, Cirium
told Insider.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled that a state law requiring
workers get a break every few hours does in fact apply to
California-based airline employees.

Some SFO-based flight attendants suspect they don't have the
option to transfer to Los Angeles — a larger American hub —
because the airline could exit California altogether.

American would have a "good business reason" to do so, John
Masslon, a senior litigator at the Washington Legal Foundation,
told Insider, especially when considering the airline's $37
billion debt.

"You might have situations where the plane is unable to take off
because of having to wait for a rest or meal break," he said.
"Planes will be unable to land and it will have a cascading
effect on delayed flights and mess up the entire system."

A bitter ending

At 64-years-old, Brown plans to retire early, despite wanting to
continue working.

"It's hurtful that I've given them 38 years of my life and this
is how I go out," she said. "I hate leaving feeling angry and
bitter. I wanted to leave feeling sad because it's been a great
career."

Flight attendants who can't retire early or move will have to
commute, which in the airline business means flying standby to
get to and from their new base.

The closest bases to SFO are Phoenix and Dallas, 2-hour and 3.5-
hour flights respectively, and not all 400 of the affected
flight attendants will receive their first choice. Less-senior
employees may be stuck commuting across the country, adding
dozens of unpaid hours to their schedules.

Cynthia Duarte, a 38-year veteran, worries that the extra time
she'd have to spend commuting would make it impossible to care
for her husband, who has terminal brain cancer.

"Right now I'm only gone for one day, two times a week and he
can barely handle that. You add a three-hour commute on to that
and my time away triples," Duarte said. "I never thought at our
age we would be dealing with an illness that makes every moment
count. We don't know how many we have left."

Many of her colleagues are in similarly tough situations.

A single mom and flight attendant of over 20 years doesn't know
how she'd commute and secure extra childcare for her young
child, who needs an insulin pump changed every three days. A 30-
year veteran battling a life-threatening illness said she can't
afford to lose the company's health insurance, so she plans on
flying the three hours to Dallas and back for each shift.

Anthony Cataldo, a flight attendant of 33 years, said he plans
on commuting to American's New York City base— a 5.5-hour flight
for which he'll compete with other flight attendants for a
standby seat. He estimates commuting will cost him up to $700 a
month between hotel rooms, which aren't provided by the company
in a situation like this, and parking.

If a flight attendant misses a shift due to a lack of standby
space, only three missed shifts per year are allowed. After
that, each missed commuter shift results in two attendance
"points." Employees with 11 points are subject to termination,
according to American's attendance policy.

One flight attendant, a single mother who has worked for
American for over 20 years, said she's looking for a new job to
avoid needing to move or commute out-of-state. "I have no one
anywhere else. This is where my family is. This is where my
support system is."

A dream denied

In an industry where seniority determines scheduling and pay,
every year brings flight attendants closer to working
international flights, top wages of $68.25 per hour, and more
schedule flexibility and customization. For many, it's an end
goal that can make the low starting pay, night shifts, and
grueling reserve hours all worth it.

The decades of experience with the goal of achieving that
lifestyle are now effectively lost, one flight attendant told
Insider.

"I put in over 20 years, and now they're telling me that I may
not be able to put in the rest of my years," she said. "My plan
was to retire at American."

In a town hall meeting on September 27, company representatives
told SFO-based flight attendants that after several
calculations, the carrier determined that operating a base out
of San Francisco was simply not financially viable, according to
an audio recording shared with Insider by a verified source.

Some employees expressed confusion on why they need to leave San
Francisco if the carrier will still need to staff SFO flights.
American specifically expressed plans to keep flights at the
same level as today, meaning the airline will have to fly in
flight attendants based at other airports.

Considering the airline also said it will continue to hire new
flight attendants, several crew members said it feels as though
the airline wants to replace its veteran staff with new
employees who are paid much less.

"We have a 17-year-old daughter who's graduating high school
this year, and an 11-year-old daughter. It doesn't make sense
for me to ask my family to move," Louis Rangel, who started
working for American in 1988 and grew up in the Bay area, said.

"I don't know how to start over," he continued. "It's hard for
many of us, to think that someone you've been dedicated to for
30 plus years, and then just, nope, this is it: Take it or leave
it."

Are you a flight attendant? Got a story or tip to share? Email
this reporter at hto...@insider.com from a non-work address

Comments:

JohnG
12 hours ago

AA isn't pulling out of CA. SFO has been a marginal base for AA
for a long time ago as they ceded the market to UA out of SFO.
They focused their efforts on LAX and LAX just doesn't have any
open bidding slots for FA's currently. As with your wife, they
do have the option to commute to bases with open positions. It's
more a question of if they want to commute, not that they don't
have the option to.

https://news.yahoo.com/american-airlines-closing-san-francisco-
114500390.html