Flight attendants at American Airlines are once again calling for more money to work flights to London Heathrow, and this time they’ve filed a notice of dispute in a bid to secure “meaningful” additional compensation when they operate to the British capital.
The reason for the escalating tensions between the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), which represents crew members at American Airlines, and management is due to a catering meltdown that has been dragging on since early March.
“This is not simply an operational inconvenience—it is a contractual and quality-of-work-life issue that demands resolution,” the Dallas Fort Worth division of APFA told its members in an internal memo on Thursday.
“Despite repeated engagement, the issues impacting our crews—particularly within the LHR operation—remain unresolved,” the memo continued.
“As a result, we are actively advancing this dispute through the appropriate contractual channels while continuing to pursue escalation, including the filing of a Presidential Grievance if warranted.”
The issues at London Heathrow occurred almost overnight when American Airlines suddenly ditched its long-term catering partner at the airport, the ground handling company Dnata, which is owned by Dubai-based Emirates.
The reason why American Airlines chose to suddenly stop using Dnata for its catering operations at Heathrow Airport remains a mystery, as the carrier has ignored repeated requests for comment on the issue.
However, there have been reports of serious concerns about sanitary conditions at the catering facility. Last month, a photo of what appeared to be a dead rodent in a Business Class bread basket on an American Airlines flight from Heathrow went viral, although the authenticity of the image has not been verified.
Because the decision to stop using Dnata catering at Heathrow came seemingly out of the blue, American Airlines has been forced to significantly alter how it caters its flights, not only on services from London Heathrow but also to the airport.
The flight attendant union believes that these changes are making their jobs harder and, therefore, warrant some sort of bonus payment for working Heathrow flights.
The biggest change came in the immediate aftermath of the Dnata catering contract being suspended. Unable to find another catering contract to service American’s massive operations out of Heathrow, the airline had to ‘double cater’ every flight to Heathrow.
That means that flights departing the United States had all of the catering provisions for both the outbound and return flight on board.
Double catering is very unusual because aircraft galleys are designed to hold every bit of catering equipment and food needed for two transatlantic flights. This is a big change for flight attendants, which the union says has substantially increased their workload.
Thankfully, by mid-March, American’s joint venture business partner, British Airways, was able to lend some spare capacity at its upmarket catering contractor Do&Co to restore a near-normal catering service in Business Class on flights departing Heathrow.
The deal also restored a normal main meal service in Premium Economy, although the second meal, and both services in Economy, remain double catered from the United States.
It remains unclear when American Airlines will be able to fully cater flights at London Heathrow.
Earlier this week, the New York JFK division of the flight attendant union also called for American Airlines to pay crew members more money on flights to London Heathrow.
The internal memo from the Dallas Fort Worth division said the union would “not hesitate to escalate further” if the airline does not come to the table with an offer for additional compensation.
Unfortunately, it’s not entirely unusual for airline catering facilities to face health and safety probes from time to time, but contract suspension for this length of time would suggest American Airlines doesn’t plan to use Dnata going forward.
The problem that the airline faces, though, is finding another supplier with enough capacity to cater its huge operation. The Texas-based carrier operates up to 19 flights per day between Heathrow and nine US cities.
In fact, American Airlines accounts for nearly a quarter of all seats available between Heathrow and the United States, and in 2024, the carrier is estimated to have carried 14.5 million passengers between the US and London.
