Eastern Calls Back All of Its Flight Attendants

Eastern Airlines is calling back the hundreds of flight attendants that it laid off last month, an airline spokesman said Wednesday.

“Increased productivity” resulting from a contract signed recently with the pilots union “will make this a 6% bigger airline,” said Glenn Parsons, an Eastern spokesman. “We’ll have 6% more flights, so we’ll need more flight attendants.”

The airline has not disclosed the terms of new contracts with the pilots and flight attendants because the unions’ members have not ratified them.

Eastern said that, when it laid off the flight attendants Feb. 4, it asked them to leave on file the addresses where they could be reached in the event that they are needed. Of the 1,010 laid off, 735 provided addresses, the airline said Wednesday, and they have been contacted.

Eastern also said that any laid-off attendants who did not supply their addresses are welcome to return.

The airline said it needs about 1,000 more attendants than it has, so it will hire new attendants to make up the difference. The recalled attendants will resume work April 1, when training will start for the new ones.

Meantime, Parsons said Eastern, which is in the process of being taken over by Texas Air Corp., had experienced the two heaviest reservations days in its history Monday and Tuesday. On Monday, 313,150 seats were booked, and the next day there were 329,251 bookings.

Parsons said a number of factors contributed to the heavy bookings.

He cited recent fare decreases and the fact that, since last week’s announcement of the proposed merger, “people are showing confidence in Eastern again. They know we will continue flying. They know there will not be a strike, and they know there won’t be a bankruptcy.”