CommutAir, Piedmont Staff Ratify New Deals

• United Express carrier CommutAir and its pilots union ratified a new contract that provides 25 percent pay increases for captains, and 32 percent for first officers. The deal ends talks that started in 2019 but paused during the pandemic, resuming only last May. The new contract also provides commuter pay for pilots, 30 days of maternity leave, and 25 percent more pay over the four-year course of the deal. “After suspending and then restarting negotiations amidst the pandemic, CommutAir pilots now have a contract in which the pay rates and benefits reflect our contributions to this company,” said Earl Blowers, chairman of the CommutAir Air Line Pilots Association Master Executive Council.
  
• Meanwhile, Piedmont Airlines, a regional that operates flights for American Airlines, ratified a new contract with its flight attendants. The new four-year agreement raises pay, maintains current healthcare benefits, and offers a signing bonus to new employees. Piedmont employs 300 flight attendants. The deal comes after Piedmont flight attendants voted to authorize a strike last year to break the impasse on negotiations.
  
• Discounters and merger partners Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines plan three new crew bases as they continue to grow separately until they receive regulatory sign off for their proposed combo. Denver-based Frontier plans a new base in Phoenix where it will staff up to 180 pilots and 275 flight attendants by November. Frontier now flies 14 routes from the city. The Phoenix base will joinsFrontier’s others at: Atlanta, Denver, Las Vegas, Orlando, Miami, Tampa, and Trenton/Philadelphia.
  
  And Spirt plans new bases in Atlanta and Miami later this year. The airline plans to staff each base with more than 100 pilots and 200 flight attendants. The bases are Spirit’s eighth and ninth after: Atlantic City, N.J., Chicago O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, and Orlando.

— Madhu Unnikrishnan