Delta to pay flight attendants for boarding times

Delta Air Lines, which is facing another attempt to unionize its flight attendants, will begin paying cabin crews during boarding, a first for a major U.S. airline.

Across the airline industry in the United States, hourly pay for flight attendants starts when all the passengers are seated and the plane’s doors close.

Delta said the change will start June 2 on all flights.

In a memo to flight attendants, Delta’s senior vice president of in-flight service, Kristen Manion Taylor, said the new pay “further recognizes how important your role is on board to ensuring a welcoming, safe and on-time start to each flight.”

The rate of pay during boarding will be 50% of regular wages.

The change comes as Delta plans to increase the boarding time for single-aisle or “narrow-body” planes from 35 minutes to 40 minutes, which the airline expects will increase the percentage of flights that depart on time.

Manion Taylor said that after a test last fall, and getting comments from flight attendants, she promised not to impose the new boarding times without providing additional pay for the cabin crews.

Delta said the new boarding pay would be on top of 4% raises for flight attendants that it announced in March and which take effect later this week.

Atlanta-based Delta has successfully campaigned to defeat several attempts to organize its 20,000 flight attendants. The Association of Flight Attendants – which has been gearing up its latest organizing effort at Delta for more than two years but has not yet amassed enough support to force a vote – took credit for the boarding pay.

United Airlines to offer more flights to Europe

DALLAS – United Airlines plans to offer more flights across the Atlantic this summer than it did in 2019, a wager that international travel will bounce back strongly despite the persistent pandemic.

United said Tuesday that it will boost transatlantic passenger-carrying capacity by 25% over pre-pandemic levels to a combination of new destinations and old favorites such as London.

Patrick Quayle, the airline’s senior vice president of international network, said it was the biggest single transatlantic increase in United’s history.

“We will be the largest carrier across the transatlantic,” he said.

Later this week, United will begin serving several new destinations that it named last fall, including Portugal’s Azores and Spain’s Canary Islands. The company is also adding flights – for example, jumping to 22 daily flights from the U.S. to London in late May.

Even before Tuesday’s announcement, United had scheduled more passenger-carrying capacity to Europe in June and July than its closest rivals – 15% more than Delta Air Lines and 36% more than American Airlines, according to data from research firm Cirium. Each carrier also has European partner airlines.

United’s annual revenue from U.S.-Europe flights fell from $7.4 billion before the pandemic to $2.2 billion in 2020. It edged higher to $3.4 billion last year, or 14% of total revenue.

There is risk to United’s growth plans as international flying has lagged the recovery in domestic travel.

Some Americans are unwilling to risk being stranded overseas for several extra days if they contract the virus during their trip.

Despite intense lobbying by airlines, the Biden administration has given no indication of lifting the testing requirement.

From wire reportsUnited had to scale back its summer plans – delaying three new routes – because of a pilot shortage and the grounding of several dozen Boeing 777 jets after the Pratt & Whitney engine on one of them blew apart over Denver in February 2021.