Around 2,598 Alaska Airlines pilots out of a total crew workforce of 3,300 have voted in favor of a new three-year contract that took three years to negotiate, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and Alaska Airlines said on Monday.
Depending on their length of service at the Seattle-based airline, pilots will see their wages soar by between 14 and 23 per cent with top-of-scale Captain’s set to earn as much as $330 per hour in the next two years.
The bumper pay package, along with improved schedules and improved job security took years of back-and-forth negotiations, as well as a strike authorization vote and pilots picketing airports and the airline’s annual general meeting.
“Our goal was to negotiate an agreement where our pilots could make Alaska Airlines a lifelong career and not just a stepping stone to another airline,” commented Captain Will McQuillen, chairman of the Alaska Airlines Master Executive Council.
“This contract is good for our pilots and their families and also good for our airline,” Captain McQuillen continued.
Alaska’s chief executive Ben Minicucci said he was “grateful” that the pilots union had “bargained with determination and a fierce dedication”.
“This new contract reiterates what many of us have known for decades: Alaska is a great place to spend a pilot career,” Minicucci said on Monday.
The union had warned Alaska that pilot pay and working conditions had fallen behind its competitors and that the airline would struggle to recruit pilots if it didn’t offer some dramatic improvements.
Facing a nationwide pilot shortage, airlines are now trying to lure talent with big pay raises and other incentives.
