Flight Attendants

US Airways customers won't see any "chaos" caused by flight attendants during the holidays, but analysts are still waiting before declaring an end to the airline's labor troubles.Officials for the Association of Flight Attendants say they are reserving the right to demonstrate at airports during the holiday travel season after a federal mediation board's order last week to continue negotiating a new employment contract.The order delays the union's threatened strike or walkout -- a plan dubbed "chaos" by the union, short for "create havoc around our system."

Mechanics at US Airways approved a five-year employment contract yesterday, averting a possible strike and bringing an end to contentious negotiations that the company said led to flight delays and profit losses.The agreement with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers includes a 6 percent pay raise, a signing bonus and "no lay-off protection" for 7,500 current employees. The contract was approved by a 3-1 margin.The airline, based in Arlington, Va., expects to report "a significant loss" for the third quarter, Chief Executive Officer Rakesh Gangwal said yesterday, but resolving negotiations with the mechanics was seen as a big step toward restoring the company's profitability.

US Airways and the union representing its 9,000 flight attendants have asked a federal mediator to intervene in negotiations for a new employment contract, amid demands from the union that the airline share its newfound profitability with employees.The Association of Flight Attendants has been negotiating a new contract with the Arlington, Va.-based airline for more than two years, but has had "very, very little progress," according to Lynn Lenosky, president of the union's division of US Airways employees.

Southwest Airlines Co. announced yesterday that it will bring a new crew base of 300 flight attendants to Baltimore-Washington International Airport in July and expand it to 800 by year-end -- a move expected to have an economic impact of $28 million annually on the state.The crew base, to be located on the upper level of the terminal between Pier D and the International Pier, will increase the number of Southwest employees here to more than 1,500."We have grown extensively in Baltimore and hope to continue to grow," said Kristie Kerr, a spokeswoman for Southwest in Dallas.

IF YOU dreamed that you could be a winner in a class-action lawsuit, consider the fate of the airline flight attendants who sued the tobacco industry, claiming that exposure to cigarette smoke during flights caused lung cancer and other diseases.The lawsuit was originally filed as a class action to save the flight attendants and the judicial system from a multiplicity of individual lawsuits. A judge recently approved a settlement in the landmark case, however, that requires each class member to file an individual lawsuit to get any financial compensation.

US Airways Shuttle flight attendants approved a contract yesterday that raises their pay and improves benefits.The flight attendants voted 132 to 2 in favor of the contract, with five ballots voided. The group, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, had sought pay and benefits comparable to its counterparts at US Airways, the sixth-largest U.S. airline.US Airways Shuttle's first-year flight attendants will receive a 32 percent pay raise, and a sixth-year flight attendant will get a 68 percent increase.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- To appreciate the attention to detail of Rakesh Gangwal, who was recently promoted to chief executive of US Airways Group, consider this: While reviewing a training tape for flight attendants, he was dismayed to see the person portraying a business traveler lick her finger to turn a magazine page.She was not trying to model behavior for the flight attendants. But no matter: Gangwal said it should have been caught and changed."The tape was about excellence, and we don't want to depict that image, even to ourselves," he said.

Ratcheting up the pressure on labor to cut costs, US Airways Group Inc. plans to furlough 103 pilots and reduce the size of its crew based at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, where the airline has announced a significant cutback.The furloughs came to light Tuesday when the carrier posted its flight schedule for the three-month period beginning July 1.The initial 60 layoffs are expected to be timed with the July 1 expiration of the pilots' no-furlough clause, according to union sources.

MIAMI -- Lawyers for the tobacco industry and 60,000 U.S. flight attendants are girding for the start this week of a trial that will test the industry's liability for illnesses supposedly caused by secondhand smoke.The case, known as Broin vs. Philip Morris, is the first to seek damages for bystanders supposedly harmed by smoke from other people's cigarettes. It will also be the first tobacco case of any kind tried on behalf of a whole class of plaintiffs, where an industry defeat could bring damages in the billions of dollars.

In yet another strong indication that it will revamp its money-losing route structure, US Airways said yesterday that it is ending jet service to nine cities and closing some reservation and maintenance facilities by Sept. 4.The decision means that 28 daily flights will be eliminated and 22 planes will be grounded.The Arlington, Va.-based carrier, which is deadlocked in its negotiations with its pilots, just this week announced planned pilot furloughs. While the message in the latest cuts will not be lost on labor, the airline denied yesterday that the cuts are a bargaining tactic aimed at its unions.

I might have to consider staying longer on the continent, especially after the discovery that they serve beer at McDonald's restaurants in some foreign countries. In particular, this revelation has given me a new appreciation for the French culture. If that isn't enough, I boarded an AirBerlin flight on Thursday and the flight attendants were handing out free copies of Playboy, which caused me to spontaneously blurt out, "What a country!" Unfortunately, it was the German language version of Playboy, so it was useless to me. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.

Last fall, three friends and I flew from Lisbon, Portugal, to Los Angeles by way of Philadelphia. On the flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, I was showing them my new camera and took a few pictures of our surroundings. A flight attendant came to me and told me to show her the pictures, which I did. On our arrival, armed officers escorted us off the plane, separated us and made us wait for the authorities. They asked ridiculous questions ("What's your eye color?") and, in the end, they let us go with no apologies.

Passengers will jockey for storage space in cramped overhead bins. Flight attendants will have to step in to referee and demand that those stuffed suitcases be checked. Ground crews will scramble to load excess oversized carry-ons into cargo holds as the plane idles. Security backups will grow still longer as passengers throw more bags at screeners to be looked at or opened - some no doubt carrying banned liquids or gels. Those are the scenes that airline analysts and workers envision if American Airlines' decision this week to charge for all checked luggage prompts other carriers to follow suit - and if travelers rebel by trying to bring as much carry-on baggage as they can get away with.

You'll never look at, or reach into, an airline seat-back pocket the same after reading this. Besides being a repository for magazines, newspapers, books, iPods and air-sickness bags, seat-back pockets get stuffed with all kinds of disgusting trash, from toenail clippings to mushy meals. People do things on airplanes that they would never do in other public settings. They pluck eyebrows, polish nails and pick noses. They stick chewed gum in places only other passengers will discover. They blow noses into blankets that get folded up for the next weary traveler.

Southwest Airlines Co., which has never laid off an employee despite the industry's tough times, offered buyouts yesterday to more than a quarter of its work force, a move that officials expect will help the carrier remain profitable as it grapples with its two largest costs: labor and fuel. The airline employs more than 33,200, including about 2,600 in the Baltimore region. It's targeting those with more than a decade of service, or 8,700 workers, though workers and observers expect that Southwest will replace each person who leaves with someone earning less money.

Your children are going to camp far from home this summer, but you can't get off work or justify the expense of an extra plane ticket just to fly them there. Should you trust the airlines to take care of them if they fly alone? Given the well-publicized difficulties in commercial air travel -- with ever-shifting security rules and, earlier this year, passengers stuck on grounded planes -- some parents simply won't consider it. "Some families don't have a choice," said Michelle Bisnoff, a mother of two from Orange County, Calif.

When the airline industry went into a tailspin after the 2001 terrorist attacks, pilots, flight attendants and mechanics at American Airlines agreed to billions of dollars in cuts in wages and benefits to keep the carrier afloat. Now AMR Corp., American's parent, is back in the black, so much so that 874 top executives will receive more than $150 million in stock bonuses this week. That has the 57,000 rank-and-file employees seeing red. "We made huge sacrifices," said Dana Davis, an 18-year American employee and spokeswoman for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants.

Dec. 22 2001 Richard Reid, a passenger on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami, tried to light explosives in his shoes, but was subdued by flight attendants and fellow passengers.

DETROIT -- The flight attendants union at Northwest Airlines Inc. plans to notify travelers by e-mail before it stages surprise walkouts, which are possible as early as its strike deadline Friday night. But don't expect much notice. The Association of Flight Attendants has asked travelers to sign up on its Web site, www.nwaafa.org, to receive e-mail alerts about walkouts. The notice could be as much as a couple of hours if the union plans a full-scale walkout or as short as 20 minutes - after passengers are at the airport - if the union plans to strike one flight, AFA spokesman Ricky Thornton said yesterday.

DALLAS -- To earn his pay, Mike Mitchel collects boarding passes and helps passengers onto airplanes. At age 56, he lives with his mother, takes a yearly vacation to Las Vegas when the room rates are cheapest, and counts movies and music CDs as extravagances. "I like to save," Mitchel said. "I'll pick up a penny." Mitchel, though, could readily afford to walk past any dropped change. As one of the 17 remaining active employees who helped start Southwest Airlines 35 years ago, he is rich.