Stewardesses wearing protective masks pass through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday, April 7, 2021.
Илия Нувелаж | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Delta Air Lines has said it will start paying flight attendants on board, for the first time for a major US airline, and an initiative coming during an initiative to syndicate the Atlanta-based airline’s largest task force.
Stewardesses are usually paid from the moment the boarding doors close.
Delta plans to start paying on board, half the hourly rates of flight attendants, on June 2, according to a company note. The carrier is also increasing the boarding time for cramped flights to 40 minutes from 35 minutes, which the company says is “one of the few steps we are taking to add sustainability to our work”.
The pay changes were announced as a union campaign by the Stewardess Association, which began in late 2019, and is gaining momentum again as the pandemic crisis subsides for airlines.
More than 20,000 Delta flight attendants are not unionized, unlike other major US airlines.
“As we approach the application for our union vote, the leadership becomes nervous,” an AFA statement said. The organization is the largest union of flight attendants in the country, representing cabin crews in United, Spirit, Hawaiian, Alaska and Frontier, among others.
“In this case, they also know that changing the internal boarding time from 35 to 40 minutes without adding benefit would make a fuss – just like the Atlanta test did in October,” AFA said.
The board fee is over 4% of the increase announced by Delta in March, the first annual increase in staff since 2019.
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