American Airlines flight attendants could have airplane cabin cleaning chores added to their responsibilities at some point in the future — perhaps as early as May.
Sources within the ranks of more than 25,000 American Airlines flight attendants say they could be required to commence cabin cleaning chores next month.
Cleaning cabins is currently done by third-party vendors.
But a spokeswoman for the world’s largest carrier pushed back hard on Friday when asked whether flight attendants would undertake any cabin cleaning in the coming weeks.
“It (cabin cleaning) will not be implemented in May. We have had no discussions internally or with the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) about it," the spokeswoman said.
APFA represents thousands of flight attendants who work for AA.
But if and when that cleaning time arrives, cabin cleaning duties AA flight attendants will be responsible for are spelled out in great detail in an agreement that took effect in October 2018 with the full integration of legacy American Airlines and legacy U.S. Airways flight attendants into a single operating unit. That historic, complex integration process took years to complete in the wake of the merger of AA with U.S. Airways in 2012.
Per the agreement, which was obtained by the Chicago Business Journal, all flight attendants would be responsible for collecting papers and refuse in the cabin, crossing seat belts, stowing pillows and blankets in the overhead compartments and/or seats, and collecting and stowing magazines where applicable.
The agreement also says flight attendants will be responsible for the tidying of seat-back pockets and collecting and removing items from those pockets that are visible and accessible without having to reach into the pocket.
The agreement also stipulates that AA flight attendants will be required to perform these cleaning duties even in instances where the airline has contracted with third-party cabin cleaning vendors.
In the golden age of air travel, flight attendants at legacy United States-based carriers such as American typically would not have dealt with cabin cleaning.
That chore, however, has been a standard part of flight attendant duties at Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) since forever. Frequent travelers on that low-fare behemoth no doubt have seen flight attendants scurrying to begin their cabin tidying procedures as soon as passengers start deplaning.
If AA does decide to implement cabin cleaning chores for flight attendants, some within their ranks wonder if it will be possible to do the specified cleaning tasks along with their other duties and also be ready for the plane door to close 10 minutes prior to a flight’s scheduled departure time.
American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL), in particular, has been aggressively moving to improve its on-time performance and reliability in 2019, after a notably subpar performance in 2018.
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