American Stays Aloft as Pilots Refuse to Join Strike

As striking flight attendants continued to cripple much of its operations, American Airlines on Friday averted a potential shutdown when its pilots union decided not to strike in support of the attendants.

Meanwhile, American ticket-holders, faced with a second day of canceled flights nationwide, scrambled to claim an increasingly short supply of seats on other carriers for the Thanksgiving Day holiday--one of the busiest times of the year for air travel.

“It’s a matter of calling us and hoping that we have a seat on the flight you want,” Delta Air Lines spokesman Bill Berry said. “Then, you will have to be flexible. You may have to be willing to arrive earlier or later in the day” than originally planned.

Dallas-based American, the nation’s second-largest airline, had faced systemwide collapse if the 10,000-member Allied Pilots Assn. had decided to honor the flight attendants’ picket lines, according to industry observers. For the second consecutive day, American said it was able to fill only 50% of its scheduled flights because of the lack of qualified flight attendants.

In a joint news conference with the 21,000-member Assn. of Professional Flight Attendants, Allied Pilots Assn. President Rich LaVoy said “the need for a sympathy strike has been superseded” by the success of the flight attendants’ strike.

The pilots union had planned to reveal results Friday of a non-binding vote of members on the question of launching a sympathy strike, but the union leadership did not tabulate the votes. LaVoy said, however, the union will continue to watch the strike “and retains the right to reconsider a sympathy strike.”

Earlier in the day, American filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Texas seeking to block the pilots union from holding a sympathy strike. The airline had already won an injunction barring ground crews from launching a similar protest.

The strike, which is scheduled to last until Nov. 29, began Thursday after the flight attendants and American deadlocked over salary demands, changes in work rules and concessions sought by the company. The flight attendants say the raises the airline is offering would be negated by employee contributions for health and retiree benefits.

American, which has suffered heavy losses in recent years, also wants to operate some flights with fewer flight attendants as part of a plan to cut operating costs in the face of stiff competition from low-fare airlines.

Despite the lack of strike support of the pilots, the flight attendants’ strike continued to snarl American flights worldwide. Under federal regulations, a commercial airliner cannot fly without at least one qualified flight attendant for every 50 seats.

In Southern California, American had to cancel at least 34 of its 46 scheduled departures from Los Angeles International Airport, including an international flight to London. The airline had better luck at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport, where about 40% of nearly 25 departures left with passengers on board.

Airlines such as United, Delta, Continental, Northwest and America West have agreed to honor most American tickets--including discount fares--through Nov. 30 if space is available. In most cases, American ticket holders can call other carriers in advance to reserve a seat.

But even on competing carriers, space is already tight for Wednesday flights to Dallas, Chicago, Nashville, Miami and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.,--cities where American is the dominant carrier or a major player. Seats are also in very limited supply for the Sunday and Monday after Thanksgiving.

“When we look at booking a seat for someone to Dallas (on other carriers) next Wednesday or Thursday, we find absolutely nothing,” said Thomas Nulty, president of Santa Ana-based Associated Travel Management.

Many of American’s Los Angeles travelers bound for Honolulu and south Florida today also faced a shortage of seats, said Delta spokesman Bill Berry.

“Those are going to be extremely difficult points for tomorrow,” said Berry. “Honolulu was extremely busy.”

Passengers and travel agents were left fuming when American delayed flights indefinitely before canceling them.

“They aren’t telling the customers anything at the airports in a timely manner to take advantage of alternate flights,” said Jim M. Roberts, president of Uniglobe Regency Travel in Rancho Cucamonga. “We don’t feel comfortable referring customers to American simply because of the way they reacted.”

American, which usually earns an average of $30 million a day during November, faces a substantial loss in revenue during the strike, said Jon F. Ash, an airline industry consultant and managing director of Global Aviation Associates in Washington.

“The numbers are big, but this is not about short-term revenue loss,” Ash said. “It’s about long-term structural changes. The labor costs of (low-fare carriers) are anywhere from 20% to 40% lower than American, United and Delta. The big guys have to make major structural changes.”