American Airlines Giving Leave to Nearly 1,500 Pilots in April as It Tries to Trim Workforce

American Airlines is offering partial paid leave in April to nearly 1,500 pilots who volunteered to help the carrier pare down its payrolls following an unprecedented drop in passenger traffic.

Most of the pilots fly the airline’s wide-body or smaller aircraft. But the total also includes about 600 pilots of Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 aircraft — about half the number American originally told pilots it needed. American blamed that reduction on a “miscalculation or miscommunication."

American originally told pilots it would offer short-term leave in April with partial pay to 1,200 Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 pilots. But Wednesday morning, the company said its staffing group “did not believe we would be able to accommodate any A320 or B737 leaves for the month of April.”

Eventually, it was able to offer the short-term leave to about 600 737 and A320 pilots starting April 1 and April 6, the company said.

In a letter from American Airlines executive Kimball Stone, he apologized for leading pilots to believe that they would be able to take leave with partial pay during April.

“The crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has brought uncertainty, for both our personal well-being and the financial health of the airline,” said the letter from Stone, American’s senior vice president for flight operations and integrated operations center. “Over the past few days, we have added to the stress and uncertainty in finalizing the voluntary leave of absence awards. I apologize for that and offer no excuses. We should have done better."

Fort Worth-based American has been offering voluntary leave with partial pay to a growing number of union workers, hoping to pare costs while preparing for months of reduced flying until the COVID-19 pandemic is over and passengers are willing to get back on airplanes.

Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, said many of the pilots were anticipating taking leave not only to help the company deal with financial pressure but to also avoid health risks and take care of family members such as elderly parents and children out of school.

“We appreciate the honest disclosure,” Tajer said. “But some of our pilots were counting on this to take care of families.”

Tajer said more than 1,200 of the 737 and A320 pilots had hoped to take leave in April.

American’s offer to pilots was more generous than the one for other employees, giving them about two-thirds of the pay usually given to a pilot flying minimum flight hours in a month. The offer was better because pilots have a stronger contract with higher requirements for minimum hours.

American is giving pilots the option to take one, three or six months off with partial pay or take early retirement. Airline analysts expect the downturn in flying to last well into the summer and that traffic won’t fully recover at any point in 2020.

American’s 737 and A320 fleet has become more important as the company has parked more than half of its fleet. The company cut flying by 60% in April and up to 80% in May. Much of those cuts come on long-haul flying as international demand has essentially disappeared and many countries have closed borders to visitors to hold off the spread of COVID-19.

Giving temporary leave to pilots puts American in a unique position because it was aggressively hiring through the end of 2019.

American has not yet announced how many employees in other work groups will be granted a short-term leave of absence because the window to apply has not closed yet.

“Thank you to all [who] stepped forward and dramatically altered your lives in this time of crisis,” said a letter sent to employees by Chip Long, American’s managing director of flight line operations. “We will get through this together.”

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