MEC Central Schedule Committee DSL Report - June 2022

Date: May 5, 2022

May 5 2022

DSL Review Information

The System Schedule (DSL) meeting to review the June 2022 flying assigned at each base/satellite was held on Tuesday May 3 to Thursday May 5, 2022.  

The International and domestic meetings were held at Willis Tower on May 5, 2022, in a combined meeting and the meeting facility was equipped to allow those still working from home to participate via Microsoft Teams. In attendance for the company, in person, were Jason Silber, Tim Wilson, Scott Anderson, Mary Fran Oates, Shannon Pisciotto, Kara Wojcik, Max Caviness, Phil Middleton. Attending for the company via Teams was Robert Poleski, Edith Sanfillip, Kaella Nowac, Lucille Bangura-Doxey and Warren Rys. Central Schedule Committee Members in attendance were Jo Fullerton, Wayne Talaski, Karen Sullivan and Celeste Bouchard.  Cleveland Council 63 LECVP and LSC member Marsha Catri attended in person while London Council 7 LECP Michael Schwaabe attended the meeting via Teams, both as guests of AFA.

June is a thirty (30) day month (B), starting on Wednesday June 1 and ending on Thursday June 30.

Paid Contractual Holidays: None

Other Significant Holidays:  Fathers’ Day June 19^th (Unpaid)

International Meeting

Delay in Receiving DSL to Review

CSC did not receive the DSL for our review from the company until after 4pm Central time on May 3, 2022. We were advised the delay in transmission came as Network Planning was in the process of deciding on changes and cancelations due to delays in 777-200 aircraft returning to service from Boeing.  After we received the DSL; the company advised us that the international non-language position was not numbered correctly starting at 6000 as set forth in the matrix and were instead numbered starting at 6100.  When brought to the attention of the company, CSC was told they will re-number this position to start at 6000 for the final handoff.  At this point the MEC Officers were involved in the discussion that we would receive an updated DSL the next day in the morning and we would push back the International meeting with the company by a day; ultimately it was decided a combined meeting reviewing both the Domestic and International DSL’s would occur the following day.

International Check-in time exceptions:

The following schedule of flights to destinations requiring pre-departure COVID-19 testing will have one hour (1:00) added to their report time resulting in the report time for these flights being 2:15 prior to departure, with the exception of LAX/NRT which will have a report time of 2:00 and ORD/TLV which will have a report time of 1:55.

Widebody Equipment Changes

New Markets/Season Changes

Destinations Flown as Weekly or Daily Frequencies

Assignment of Flying between bases

For Flights into London:

*LHRSWR (934/015): EWR flies 8 and LHR flies 2 position

*** Guam was assigned all positions for flights between Guam and Honolulu for the month of June ***

Language Exception Flying Assignments

Delay in 777-200 Aircraft with Pratt-Whitney Engines

Since there was a delay again for June in the return to service of the 777 aircraft, Network Planning had to make last minute schedule changes. As these aircrafts were originally planned for the June schedule; some routes were cancelled or postponed. In addition, aircraft on other routes were down gauged in an effort to maintain as much of the aircraft schedule as possible.

Inaugural Flights

For the month of June, the company will be flying Palma de Mallorca, Spain (PMI) and Tenerife, Spain (TFS) as Special Purpose Flights as outlined under Section 7.A.9.c of the agreement. The outbound and return positions will not appear in the bid package and will count as four (4) of the company’s annually allotted ten flights provided for under the Contract.

International Qualified Purser Flying

As reported in last month’s DSL Report, based on the resumption of international flying, management continues to activate and interview International Pursers. Manpower planning has decided to continue with the Purser training for the locations that they initially project a shortage of pursers; however, we were informed that they all will not be activated until the time comes later in the summer when flying returns.

International Line Averages – June 2022

Variable Staffing

CSC, with the help of our Local Schedule Committees, assessed the company’s proposed staffing around the system, more specifically to popular leisure destinations where pent up travel demand is likely to occur.  

After our meeting we were informed that the following would warrant variable staffing for June: ORD to FRA, EWR to DUB on the 767s only, and IAD to FRA on the widebody aircraft only.

Domestic Meeting

End of Month Conflicts

Management is still assessing the end of month conflicts that occur in the satellite locations as covering these pairing continues to be an issue. Management informed us that starting in July they will be testing a concept of assigning no pairings starting on the first day of the schedule month and will be using Austin as the location to try this new concept. Management may then continue to other satellite locations going forward as well and depending on the outcome of the test, management will assess the viability of continuing the practice into the future.

Domestic Operations Affected by Delayed Return of 777

In the domestic operation, Management informed us the that EWR-HNL, EWR-OGG, and IAD-HNL would not operate for the month of June. Management stated that the five position base pairings would be removed from the schedule as these were clean out and back, while any pairings that were affected by either a cancellation or aircraft substitution with other segments would be fixed in the operation in an effort to ensure the remaining flights of the pairing remained in the bid package. 

Moving forward Advanced Planning is going to be working with the Operational side of scheduling in order to add more people to work on fixing pairings that will be affected by cancellations and aircraft substitutions from the delayed return of the 777 equipped with the Pratt and Whitney engines.  When the aircraft do begin to return to service they will be required to fly in the domestic operation first in order to meet ETOPS certification requirements before flying overwater.

Regular Reserve Lines Available for Bid: Hubs & Line Stations

Regular Reserve Lines available to Bid: Satellites

FSL Reserve Lines available to Bid

Language Qualified Reserve Lines Available to Bid

Open Time

The Chart below depicts the open time that will be set aside for each location for the June 2022 schedule:

Transfers

A total of 357 Flight Attendants accepted transfers for the June 2022 bid month.

Domestic Line Averages – June 2022

Hotels Missing from Preliminary DSL

During review of the June preliminary DSL, layover hotels had not been assigned to the following cities:

 *CSC sent the missing information to our MEC Hotel and Transportation Committee where it was confirmed inspections were underway.

International Flying Summary – June 2022

June 2022 Flying by Language Position

Time Line for Building the June 2022 Schedule: