Something Special In the Bank

In a move certain to foment increased informational picketing outside the hubs and headquarters of its competitors, American Airlines has offered its pilots pay increases of up to $64,000. The move sets a new benchmark in the orgiastic cash-grab into which the post-COVID airline industry has descended.

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom has outlined a proposal entailing a 16.9% pay-raise for the carrier’s fourteen-thousand pilots. If implemented, the measure would see a $2-billion increase in the airline’s pilot payroll.

American is the latest airline to acquiesce to union calls for higher pay and better working conditions in the smug and specious face of an alleged, global shortage of pilots. That American delayed tendering its offer pending the outcome of pay talks between United Airlines and its pilots underscores the brinkmanship to which both airline-management and pilot-unions are resorting.

Upon learning United had offered its pilots a 14% pay rise across 18-months, American made its 16.9% bid, which comprises a six-percent raise to existing [2022] pilot salaries, plus five-percent increases in both 2023 and 2024.

The offer also [reportedly] includes significant improvements to flight scheduling and quality of life.

The deal would see PIC’s of narrow-body aircraft such as Boeing’s 737 realize pay increases of up to $45,000—thereby raising their annual earning to as much as $340,000. Left-seaters flying wide-body aircraft such as the Boeing’s 787 could earn an additional $65,000–bringing their annual earnings to $425,000.

The Allied Pilots Association—a quasi-ALPA entity that represents pilots flying for American Airlines—is reviewing American’s proposal.

American Airlines is one of numerous air-carriers that have taken to cancelling flights for want of qualified pilots. In June—owing to staffing shortages at its Envoy and Piedmont subsidiaries—American ended service to Islip and Ithaca, New York, and Toledo, Ohio.

FMI: www.aa.com/homePage.do