US pilots avoid promotion to captain’s chair over quality of life concerns

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Accepting a lucrative promotion to captain may seem like an easy decision for an airline pilot. But at United Airlines, members of the pilots’ union engaged in protracted contract negotiations say the higher salary and status that comes with rank are not worth the personal cost.

Captains share cockpits with first officers, second-in-command pilots who help them with navigation and programming. But more first officers are reluctant to become captains because it might require longer flight assignments on short notice and more on-call hours, union officials say.

“The pandemic changed the way many workers feel about their work-life balance, and it certainly did for our group of pilots,” said Garth Thompson, captain and president of the United unit of the Air Line Pilots Association. “It will start to snowball and affect the company’s quite aggressive growth plans.”

Concerns about quality of life are wrapped up in negotiations between United, one of the largest US airlines, and its pilots union. They reflect a broader shift in the pandemic as workers seek better working conditions in addition to higher wages.

United has 5,900 captains and 7,500 first officers flying planes, according to Thompson. A co-pilot who has flown wide-body planes with the airline for six years earns about $210,000 a year, while a captain flying narrow-body planes for six years would earn about 22 percent more if they fly the same amount. of hours, according to aviation consultant Kit Darby.

However, moving up from senior first officer to junior captain means sacrificing some control over when and where they fly, pilots say. For some, the increased pay is not worth the added disruption to their family life.

Quincy Fleming, a United first officer who flies Boeing 777 out of San Francisco, said a promotion to captain would make it more likely that she would be denied some vacation requests and be forced to fly on a day off.

“What I am reluctant to do is put myself back at the bottom of any antiquity pile at this point in my life,” Fleming said. “I have elderly parents. I have school-age children.

United plans to add 470 aircraft in the next few years. Joseph Rohlena, an analyst at Fitch Ratings, said United have historically had no problem filling their captains’ ranks. He dismissed any threat of a captain shortage to the growth of the airline, saying he would be able to “hire pilots [so] that they can grow to the extent that they plan it”.

Contract negotiations with United pilots began in 2019, with members voting against a proposed contract in November 94 percent to 6 percent. Among the union’s priorities are rules that give on-call pilots more time to get to airports and prevent them from being forced to wait at airports on standby duty, as well as a pay increase.

United said it continued to “work with the Air Line Pilots Association on the industry-leading agreement that we have put on the table.”

Concerns about hours and working conditions have been at the center of the increase in union activity since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. Labor shortages have empowered unions to demand better working conditions, as well as higher wages, from employers.

Freight railroad workers almost left on strike last year due to attendance policies that required them to come to work with as little as 90 minutes notice and penalized sick days. Hospital administrators were forced to hire more nurses after 7,000 in New York City walked out in January, citing burnout from the sheer number of patients.

“Workers want some degree of control over their time, and then they want better wages and benefits,” said Rebecca Givan, a professor of labor relations at Rutgers University.

The heavily unionized airline industry typically engages in pattern bargaining for pilots, where the pay standards and working conditions set at one carrier set the standard for the rest. Delta Air Lines pilots ratified a contract in March that, in addition to a 34 percent pay increase over four years, partly limited the airline’s ability to assign some pilots to longer trips.

At American Airlines, the pilots reached an agreement in principle Friday after four years of negotiations. The deal included a payout to at least match Delta’s, as well as scheduling improvements, said Dennis Tajer, a US captain and spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association.

American pilots wanted to limit the number of four- and five-day trips they were assigned because they didn’t like being away from their families. In the past, trips have been shorter, but scheduling software introduced in 2020 has increased the number of long assignments. The hours pilots fly monthly have increased from about 75 per month to 85 or more, Tajer said.

“This meets the new standard, not only for compensation but also, more importantly, for work-life balance,” he said.

At United, first officer John Young said he was reluctant to jump into the captain’s seat because the move could upset his work-life balance. He said the move is likely to leave him with more on-call time, with just two and a half hours to report to work.

“Unless you’re right next to the airport, you’re sitting there with your shoes on,” he said. “You burn people.”