Once implemented, Flight Attendants awarded VRL schedules in the primary bid will no longer bid on pre-constructed relief lines of flying in the secondary bid and will, instead use FABS to input preferences for the types of pairings and other schedule characteristics of which they would like to have their schedules comprised.
As provided for in Section 7.D.1., Vacation Relief Lines shall be constructed utilizing an automated Flight Attendant Bidding System “FABS”. Letter of Agreement #12 provides for the implementation of FABS for which development began in 2019 once Jeppesen was selected as the vendor to create the system. With the advent of COVID, development was stopped in March 2020. Work has restarted on the development of FABS.
Once implemented, Flight Attendants awarded VRL schedules in the primary bid will no longer bid on pre-constructed relief lines of flying in the secondary bid and will, instead use FABS to input preferences for the types of pairings and other schedule characteristics of which they would like to have their schedules comprised.
Listing just a few of the preferences they will be able to express:
- Type of flying (domestic, language or international)
- Layover locations
- Aircraft type
- Workdays (on/off)
Training materials will be jointly developed by AFA and the company and a “practice environment” will also be available to create familiarity with the operation of the system. FABS implementation for VRL schedule bidding is planned for early 2024.
