American Airlines is upping pay bonuses for pilots at two of its regional carriers for critical periods in July, resulting in triple the hourly wage for those willing to fly during their scheduled time off during the busiest stretch of the summer travel season.
The pay bonuses for pilots at Envoy were first reported by CNBC Monday, and the same deal is being offered to pilots at Piedmont, another carrier wholly owned by American, according to a memo to pilots. The incentive comes after Fort Worth-based American and its subsidiaries already bumped up pay for pilots with a surprise new contract two weeks ago that gave a 50% flying bonus through 2024 along with large pay increases.
The “super critical coverage” pay for the month of July is part of an existing program for pilots, only used for the busiest days because it pays more than $550 an hour for some regional captains, more than even mainline American Airlines pilots make.
“It’s a tool that we have in our toolbox and we use it as necessary but this is not a new program for Piedmont,” said Piedmont spokeswoman Crystal Byrd.
The 300% pay rate is only good for “open time,” or time when pilots are not regularly scheduled. But the carriers have recently increased pay to about $90,000 a year for regional pilots.
Byrd said the carrier is still evaluating its schedule to see exactly which and how many days pilots will qualify for the triple pay rate.
Ric Wilson, Envoy’s vice president of flight operations, said the carrier regularly uses bonus pay during busy stretches and holiday weekends. He also said Envoy doesn’t expect any shortages of pilots during the month. The program will be available all month but the triple pay premium will only be available when extra flight shifts are open.
A spokesperson for Piedmont, American’s third wholly owned carrier, did not respond to a request for comment.
Sunday and Friday were the busiest travel days of the last two years with more than 2.4 million passengers going through airport security checkpoints, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
American Airlines and other carriers have been trimming flights even with high demand from passengers. American is cutting flights to four small airports in Ohio, Iowa and New York, and CEO Robert Isom said the carrier has parked about 100 regional jets.
July 1 is scheduled to be the busiest flying day of the year for air travelers coming out of the region’s two major airports at DFW International Airport and Dallas Love Field. On that day, there are seats available for more than 321,000 passengers out of the two airports.
Regional carriers such as those that fly under the American Eagle banner are usually responsible for about half of American’s flights. But this year American has had to lean more heavily on its mainline fleet with regional jets parked because of the pilot shortage.
Pilots at several carriers, including American and Dallas-based Southwest, have argued that airlines have planned too many flights for the summer months, responding to strong demand and high prices even though there is a shortage of pilots across the industry. Pilots at both airlines have reported an uptick in fatigue calls, which happens when pilots feel they are too tired to fly a trip the airline has requested.
“Airlines have built the buffer right to the max and there are problems when everything doesn’t go perfectly,” said Allied Pilots Association spokesman Dennis Tajer, whose union represents 12,700 pilots, roughly 1,100 fewer than two years ago.
Regional airlines have been short of pilots because a large number of commercial airline pilots are retiring and thousands took early retirement packages during the COVID-19 pandemic. When mainline airlines, such as American or United need pilots, they tend to hire from regional carriers that serve as feeder programs where the pay is lower.
Regional airlines are increasing pay to try to stop attrition to other airlines and keep pilots in the American Airlines pipelines, Envoy vice president of flight operations Ric Wilson said earlier this month.
