Delta Airlines Flight Attendants to Vote on Union

The fight is on at Delta Airlines in the next two months, where 20,000 flight attendants have their best chance yet to win union representation.

It’s a make-or-break vote for former Northwest cabin crews, who have been working for Delta under their old union contract since the two airlines merged in 2008. For them, this election will determine whether they lose their union and their contract, or gain another 13,000 sisters and brothers.

Voting to join the Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) will start Sept. 29 and ballots will be counted Nov. 3.

The election is significant for workers in the South, since half of Delta’s cabin crews are based in Atlanta. But Southern workers’ suspicion of unions and lack of experience with organized labor are obstacles.

New election rules are making flight attendant activists hopeful, despite defeats at Delta in 2002 and 2008.

“Before, all Delta had to do was make enough noise to convince people to be neutral or not sure—because everyone who didn’t vote was counted as a ‘no’ vote,” explained Joshua DeVries, a former flight attendant and AFA member-activist.

Under new rules instituted by the National Mediation Board June 1, elections for interstate transportation unions will now be decided by a simple majority of votes cast.

Such elections generally fall under the Railway Labor Act’s rules, which were changed to come into line with other union election procedures after a request from the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department.

Anti-union holdout
Delta has been the largest anti-union holdout in the U.S. airline industry, but those days may be ending. An additional 20,000 Delta fleet service workers, reservations agents, and others are gearing up to vote on representation by the Machinists (IAM) in the next few months. No dates have been set yet for the Machinists elections.

Management has been very aggressive, said Delta flight attendant Simone Cerasa. The anti-union campaign has included a blitz of media, including mailers, videos, posters, webcasts, pre-recorded phone calls, visits from upper management, and “even messages when you turn on your computer,” he said.

Surveillance has been intense in worker lounges. One supervisor walked by 45 times in three hours, according to union activists who started to keep count.

Cerasa said Delta managers point to the concessionary contract forced on Northwest flight attendants after the company’s 2005 bankruptcy to argue that the union can’t win much. “They never compare us to unionized airlines that didn’t go through bankruptcy, like Southwest,” he added.

They’ve also claimed that Delta’s flight attendant pay is comparable to that at other carriers. But Delta flight attendants don’t get as many paid hours, because of scheduling rules, resulting in an average yearly salary $10,000 below American and Continental, according to AFA.

It has been a difficult summer, Cerasa said, with management blunders causing severe short staffing and scheduling nightmares. “Flight attendants on cancelled flights have had to sleep in the airport because no managers were available to approve a hotel room,” he said.

This impression of management disorganization, along with the widespread perception of favoritism and continued worries about pay, benefits, and job security, have left flight attendants with plenty of reasons to vote yes.

Cautious optimism
Because pre-merger Northwest flight attendants know the power of having a union and a contract, the AFA campaign has focused on reaching out to this strong base, said Kim Kaswinkel, a U.S. Airways flight attendant who worked on the 2008 Delta campaign.

Kaswinkel is cautiously optimistic this time around, but identified two obstacles: anti-union attitudes in the South and a “Daddy Delta” mentality promoted by the company which makes workers think they owe their careers to Delta rather than to their own hard work.

Still, she says, it will be hard for management to come up with 7,000 “no” votes to counter the high, positive turnout expected among Northwest flight attendants.

Kaswinkel will be working on the “get out the vote” effort in the coming weeks. She said it will include “visibility campaigns” at major hubs, including Detroit, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, and New York City. In addition, call centers will be set up in Salt Lake City and Minneapolis.

“I believe we have a majority of the workforce, it’s just a matter of turning out the vote,” said Cerasa, noting that this is the largest union drive ever under the Railway Labor Act. And under the new rules, “we don’t start with 20,000 votes against us.”

Delta Airlines Plans Improved Facilities for New York Airports

Largely due to the massive volume of airline passengers in the New York Metropolitan area – a major hub for financial and cultural affairs – New York is now considered to be one of the most important and competitive aviation markets in the world; and Delta wants to be crowned king of the castle.

Currently in competition for number one airline are Delta, American Airlines, Continental, and JetBlue. To get ahead of the competition, Delta is making major changes at two of its New York airports – LaGuardia and John F Kennedy.

At LaGuardia, where Delta is in charge of Terminal D, the airline has announced a major upgrade to its food and dining areas; adding full-service restaurants, wine bars, and designer pizza parlours as well as upscaling its fast food offerings.

At John F Kennedy, Delta plans to vacate its current home in Terminal 3 and head to better, brighter ground. (Terminal 3 is well-known to travellers as an old and dark building that is long past its sell-by date.) Instead, Delta will be housing its International flights in a $0.2 billion US expansion of Terminal 4, with the airline’s domestic flights continuing to run from Terminal 2. As for Terminal 3 – the plans are to demolish the old girl; as Pan Am Worldport she served Kennedy well, but it is time to say goodbye.

The scheduled renovations will begin later this month and are expected to take about two years to complete.

New York has long been a favoured holiday and business destination for UK travellers.

Delta Airlines Filed Permit Application for Additional Flight Service Between Heathrow London Airport and Boston

Delta Air Lines today filed applications with the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Transportation requesting permission to operate twice-daily year-round service between London’s Heathrow Airport and Boston, and daily year-round service between Heathrow and Miami.

Delta’s new service would benefit consumers by increasing competition among airlines and airline alliances between the U.S. and Heathrow, which is tightly restricted by airport slot restraints. The oneworld alliance, which includes American Airlines and British Airways, holds 47 percent of Heathrow’s takeoff and landing slots, while the Star Alliance, which includes United Airlines, US Airways, BMI and Lufthansa, accounts for 25 percent of Heathrow’s slots.

SkyTeam, whose members include Delta, Air France-KLM and Alitalia, holds only 5 percent of Heathrow’s slots.

“Delta’s new service would provide more choices and competition for customers traveling between these important U.S. cities and London, one of the most popular destinations in Europe for both business and leisure travelers,” said Glen Hauenstein, Delta’s executive vice president – Network Planning and Revenue Management. “Awarding these slots to Delta and SkyTeam would significantly enhance competition among the major alliances across the Atlantic.”

The slots for the new service are available following the U.S. and E.U. governments’ approval of an immunized trans-Atlantic alliance between American Airlines and British Airways. The government required the airlines to divest some Heathrow slots in order to enhance competition in the most tightly restricted markets.

If approved, Delta’s Heathrow service from Boston and Miami would begin March 27, 2011, and would be offered in cooperation with its trans-Atlantic joint venture partners Air France-KLM and Alitalia.

Boston – Heathrow

Boston is one of the largest markets between the U.S. and Heathrow, with more than 270,000 passengers annually. The route is popular with business travelers in the financial services and technology industries.

Delta, the second-largest carrier in Boston with 75 peak-day departures to 17 cities, would operate two flights daily to Heathrow, using Boeing 767-300ER aircraft equipped with 36 seats in BusinessElite and 180 in Economy.

Delta’s proposed Boston-Heathrow summer 2011 schedule:

Flight Departs Arrives Frequency
270 Boston at 7 p.m. Heathrow at 6:45 a.m. (next day) Daily
144 Boston at 9:50 p.m. Heathrow at 9:35 a.m. (next day) Daily
271 Heathrow at 10:30 a.m. Boston at 1:25 p.m. Daily
145 Heathrow at 1:30 p.m. Boston at 4:25 p.m. Daily

New Delta service between Heathrow and Boston would complement existing trans-Atlantic service offered by the SkyTeam alliance from Boston, including year-round flights to Paris operated by Air France, Rome operated by Alitalia and Amsterdam operated by Delta.

Miami – Heathrow

As Florida’s largest carrier offering international service, and the second-largest carrier in Miami, Delta and its SkyTeam partners are well-positioned to enhance competition between Miami and Heathrow. If approved, Delta would operate one daily flight on the route using Boeing 767-300 aircraft.

Delta’s proposed Miami-Heathrow summer 2011 schedule:

Flight Departs Arrives Frequency
260 Miami at 5:30 p.m. Heathrow at 7:30 a.m. (next day) Daily
261 Heathrow at 10:20 a.m. Miami at 3:25 p.m. Daily

New Delta service between Heathrow and Miami would complement existing trans-Atlantic service offered by the SkyTeam alliance from Miami including year-round flights to Paris operated by Air France and Rome operated by Alitalia.

Delta Air Lines serves more than 160 million customers each year. With its unsurpassed global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 367 destinations in 65 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs more than 75,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 700 aircraft. A founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance, Delta participates in the industry’s leading trans-Atlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia. Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 13,000 daily flights, with hubs in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Memphis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York-JFK, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City and Tokyo-Narita. The airline’s service includes the SkyMiles frequent flier program, the world’s largest airline loyalty program; the award-winning BusinessElite service; and more than 45 Delta Sky Clubs in airports worldwide. Customers can check in for flights, print boarding passes, check bags and review flight status at delta.com.

source : Delta Air Lines

Delta Airlines and Nortwest Airlines Flight Attendant Choose to Join Union

Steve Slater’s case, JetBlue airlines flight attendant, encourage employees at some airlines take a position whether to join the union. Federal regulators have determined that Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines as a trigger process approximately 20 000 employees to choose whether to join a union.

Delta is the least-unionized of the major airlines, with only its pilots and a handful of others now in a brotherhood, and the airline has fought valiantly to keep its FAs from joining together in a union. The mediation board, a little-known agency that oversees airline and rail labor issues, now has two Obama-appointed members who earlier this year changed a key procedure when workers petition it, asking for a union representation election. Now it takes a simple majority of all the employees in a work class (such as flight attendants) to approve unionization in an election; previously, representation had to be approved by a majority of those voting, which meant those not voting were counted as “no.” It remains to be seen if the Delta employees will vote for the Association of Flight Attendants to now be their bargaining agent. Count on Delta telling the employees the company thinks it’s a bad idea.

Back to Mr. Slater. His action, ranting, grabbing two beers and activating the emergency slide on his JetBlue jet, has prompted a number of serious looks at the stresses of being a flight attendant. Practically everyone who flies — customers and FAs alike — is cranky these days because of crowded conditions, a less-than-hospitable welcome by some employees and fees that have prompted more of us to do carry-on bags. The last problem has made the life of the cabin crew even more unpleasant, as people try to cram too much into overhead bins, stealing space wherever they can find it and stretching out the boarding and deplaning process.

What’s worse, many airlines have cut the pay of many of their employees, and there are far fewer employees at the major airlines than there were a decade ago — 23 percent fewer, to be exact, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The number of fulltime equivalent workers has even gone down 2.4 percent in the last year, since the depths of the recession, BTS reported today. Among the good commentary I’ve read about the attendants’ situation is today’s New York Times business travel column by Joe Sharkey.

As always, I try to look on the bright side: At least the number of flight attendants per aircraft is governed by federal regulation, based on the number of seats on a plane, so the ratio for each model plane has stayed the same as workers in other airline jobs have been cut.

One more idea: The next time you fly, why not try giving a real ‘thank you’ to the flight attendants. Or fly an airline (Southwest is the only one I know of ) where the cabin crew may sing songs, make jokes during the safety briefing and wear costumes around holidays. You may actually relax during a flight, and you will really mean it when you say ‘thanks for the ride.’

Frontier Airlines Increase Flight Service between Denver and Aspen

Frontier Airlines will offer daily flights between Denver and Aspen began October 1, 2010. Flight services will be increased to four flights per day from December 16, 2010 until April 2011.

Frontier Airlines aviation services include Colorado, including Durango and Colorado Springs.

Bill Tomcich, president of Stay Aspen Snowmass said, “That means 41,000 seats or so from December to April that we thought might be lost have been recovered. ”

Meanwhile, United Airlines is adding a fourth daily flight from Chicago and a second daily flight from San Francisco to Aspen this winter, Aspen/Pitkin County Airport officials said Tuesday.

That should keep air service this season about even with last year, even though Delta Air Lines won’t be flying to Aspen this winter, Tomcich said.

Tomcich did not expect Frontier to keep flying to Aspen long term. However, a planned runway extension at the airport would allow airlines to carry more passengers and could attract more air service, he said.

Delta Air Lines to Expand First Class to More Regional Jets

Delta Air Lines Inc. said Thursday it will grow its First Class offerings to all domestic flights greater than 750 miles starting this fall.

The new First Class service, which will be available on flights that last more than two-and-a-half hours, will be made available on 50 additional Delta Connection routes that currently offer only economy class. For a list of all routes, click here.

Delta is the No. 2 airline in market share at Tampa International Airport with roughly 20 percent. Southwest Airlines is the TIA market share leader with 20 percent.
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Delta Air Lines Adds New Flight Service to Liberia

Delta Air Lines Inc. on Sept. 4 will add new service between Atlanta and Monrovia, Liberia.

Delta already has approval from the Liberian Civil Aviation Authority and preliminary approval from the U.S. government to sell seats for the new flight. Final U.S. government approvals are expected before the flight begins, Delta reported.

The new service will connect Delta’s hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Roberts International Airport in Monrovia with a stop in Accra, Ghana.

Delta originally wanted to launch service to Monrovia in June 2009, but it was delayed while Roberts International Airport implemented measures to ensure it is properly equipped and prepared for the new service.

United Airlines and Continental Airlines to Agree to Create World Biggest Airlines

United Airlines and Continental Airlines agreed Sunday to a $3 billion merger that would create the world’s biggest airline, according to people briefed on the negotiations.

United’s purchase of Continental, to be announced officially on Monday, would form a coast-to-coast behemoth with a leading presence in the top domestic markets, including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, along with an extended network to Asia, Latin America and Europe. The deal was completed in a remarkably swift two weeks, and would give the airlines the muscle to fend off low-cost rivals at home and to take on foreign carriers abroad.

The combined company would keep the United name and be based in Chicago. Jeffery A. Smisek, Continental’s chief executive, would run the company. If the deal wins antitrust approval, the merged airline would replace Delta Air Lines as the top carrier.
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Passengers Reschedule Flight after Delta Airlines Cancel Flight to European Cities

Delta Air Lines won’t restart nonstop flights between Salt Lake City and Paris until it’s sure an enormous ash cloud belching from a volcano in Iceland will not imperil its trans-Atlantic service.

Meanwhile, local travel agencies are fielding dozens of phone calls from frantic travelers sometimes forced to wait on hold for hours.

“We certainly have, and not just from Delta passengers. American, KLM, Air France, Lufthansa, too,” Brian Hollien, president of Morris Murdock Travel, said Friday. “This is going to back up travelers for weeks.”

On Friday, Delta grounded its five-times-a-week flight from Salt Lake City International Airport to Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris until further notice. The airline didn’t act Thursday because it wasn’t scheduled to fly that day.
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Delta Air Lines to Introduce Nonstop Flights Between Detroit Metropolitan Airport and Sao Paulo

Delta Air Lines (Atlanta) announced plans to introduce the first-ever nonstop flights between its Detroit Metropolitan Airport hub and Sao Paulo.

Delta has requested authorization from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to introduce two weekly flights between Detroit and Sao Paulo beginning November 4, 2010. Delta already holds certain rights to operate Sao Paulo service, but requires DOT permission to fly from Detroit. The airline would operate the flights using 216-seat Boeing 767-300ER aircraft with 35 seats in BusinessElite and 181 seats in Economy Class.

Brazil would be the latest addition to a long list of new services introduced from Detroit since Delta’s merger with Northwest Airlines last year. Other planned or recently launched nonstop routes from Detroit include :
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