American Airlines plans to cut its Phoenix pilot base by 500 pilots in the next year, another hit to Arizona from the US Airways-American Airlines merger.
The reduction, which will occur over the next year and amounts to one third of the pilots based at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, does not mean 500 pilots are losing their jobs or that the airline is slashing flights out of Phoenix.
The changes, announced late Friday, are due to merger-related shifts in crew scheduling. The company said the move was necessary to make things more efficient, a key goal of the merger.
American and Tempe-based US Airways merged in December 2013 but the merged airline has not been able to combine flight crews until now because it didn’t have a combined labor contract covering the pilots of American, US Airways and America West. America West and US Airways merged in 2005 but fought over seniority integration for years and never had a combined contract.
The three pilot groups, represented by the Allied Pilots Association, agreed on seniority integration in September. Seniority dictates a pilot’s work life, from which base they call home to the type of aircraft and routes they fly.
The Phoenix crew base is most affected because American has decided to spread its A320 trips for pilots throughout its hubs instead of the trips being so concentrated into and out of Phoenix. The Phoenix concentration was a byproduct of US Airways and America West and their A320 heavy fleets. Of American’s 1,435 pilots based in Phoenix, 1,140 are Airbus pilots.