U.S. based American Airlines is the world's largest airline by fleet size and revenue. (Photo : Reuters)
Allied Pilots Association union of American Airlines Group Inc. is said to have agreed late Saturday to accept a tentative five-year contract that includes a 23 percent pay increase, RTT News reports.
American Airlines Inc., the world's largest airlines by passengers' traffic after merging with US Airways, will increase its pilot's pay given that the deal is sealed by mid-January (retroactive to Dec. 2) that includes 3 percent raises in an annual basis starting Jan. 1, 2015, though no specific example of pay rates was given. Another 3 percent raise will be given on Jan. 1, 2016 until Jan. 1, 2019 that would cover pilots from American Airlines Inc. and US Airways.
This move by the carrier aims to provide common work rules and pay scale to employees in each labor group that is why they wanted to quickly reach new contracts, leaving the largest independent pilots union under pressure to accept the terms, Bloomberg reported.
According to the union's statement to its members on their website, "Our goal was to conclude negotiations promptly and deliver the best possible result for our pilots." However, the union that represents 15,000 pilots acknowledged that they are quite disappointed even if they have accepted the tentative contract.
It can be recalled that American and US Airways merged in December 2013, in which both agreed to retain the name and branding as American Airlines that was later rebranded as American Airlines Group Inc.
According to Fox Business, the increases offered to the American pilots are a big win for them as they will have a higher pay rate by 7 percent compared to their peers from Delta Airlines.
