A dispute over a codeshare agreement is putting American Airlines at odds with the labor union that represents its pilots.
In a message to members, Nick Silva, president of the Allied Pilots Association, said American plans to use its codeshare deal with Alaska Airlines to offer long-haul international service across the Pacific and to Europe, which would keep American pilots off those routes. Such an arrangement would violate the contract between American and the APA, he said, and exceed the limits of the American-Alaska codeshare protocol.
According to Silva, the codeshare provisions included in the first section of the pilots’ contract, known as the scope clause, “never contemplated codesharing with a domestic airline to destinations across East Asia and Europe.”
Scope clauses define the flying to be done by union members and limit the size and number of aircraft that may be flown by an airline affiliate, mainly to prevent the outsourcing of pilots’ jobs.
“Alaska Airlines recently announced even more new European routes, which prompted my request to meet with senior management,” Silva wrote. “In those discussions, management revealed plans to ignore our contract by codesharing on Alaska Airlines’ new long-haul international routes.”
The APA also pointed out that Alaska plans to operate the international routes using Boeing 787s owned by Hawaiian Airlines, making the aircraft subject to scope limits on Hawaiian and its successors.
Alaska and Hawaiian are in the process of integrating operations after completing a $1.9 billion merger in 2024.
“So, why is this so harmful to the pilots of American Airlines?” Silva continued. “The introduction of American Airlines’ code onto Alaska Airlines’ international network will provide another way for American Airlines to farm out widebody flying to other airlines — flying that pilots on our seniority list could and should be performing.”
American did not immediately reply to a request for comment from AirlineGeeks.
Silva said he has filed an expedited scope grievance with American that will be heard in late October.
“Our Scope Committee, Legal Department, outside counsel, subject-matter experts, and I will continue preparing for the arbitration and defending our contract’s scope protections,” he said. “It’s the first section for a reason.”
The APA represents about 15,000 pilots at the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier.
