Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air, which announced three months ago it would be suspending flights from seven mainland cities to Hawaii, now plans to cut nearly half of its Honolulu-based flight attendant positions.
The union representing Allegiant flight attendants in their first-ever contract negotiations said the airline will cut 17 positions, or 45 percent, of the 37 full-time flight attendant positions in Hawaii. The Transport Workers Union Local 577 said the company is recommending that Hawaii-based flight attendants bid on open jobs in other cities and is offering to pay up to $3,000 in moving expenses.
The TWU said the amount likely will cover only a portion of the relocation to the mainland.
“Due to changes in our schedule, our staffing needs have changed in Honolulu,” Allegiant spokeswoman Jessica Wheeler said Tuesday. “We have less need for full-time flight attendants based in Honolulu, so we have offered a number of those flight attendants the option to relocate to other bases in our network.”
The reduction in flight attendants in Hawaii doesn’t mean there’s less need for flight attendants in the company. Overall, Allegiants has more than 600 flight attendants.
Allegiant, which primarily connects secondary cities to leisure markets, said in April that it will cease flights to Hawaii as part of “a seasonal hiatus” beginning Aug. 14 from Boise, Idaho; Eugene, Ore.; Phoenix; Spokane, Wash.; and the California cities of Fresno, Stockton and Santa Maria.
Wheeler said Tuesday that Boise and Spokane service will be resumed for the holiday season during the second week of December and that a new route from the mainland to Hawaii will be announced Tuesday.
Routes from two mainland cities remain unaffected by the suspension of service. Allegiant continues to fly nonstop between Las Vegas and Honolulu, and from Bellingham, Wash., to both Maui and Honolulu.
The decision by Allegiant to reduce its number of flight attendants in Honolulu didn’t sit well with Michael Jenkins, a Honolulu-based Allegiant flight attendant and TWU member.
“Allegiant made the decision to cancel flights three months ago,” Jenkins said. “Why did they wait so long to tell us how we’ll be affected? It’s as if they’re saying, ‘If you don’t like it, here’s the door.’”
The airline, a full-service travel company that offers hotels, rental cars and attractions, also operates some of its mainland routes on a seasonal basis so it can fly when there’s greater demand.
Allegiant has posted 41 consecutive profitable quarters.
Allegiant, which entered the Hawaii market in June 2012, initially planned to make its Hawaii-based flight attendants part time, contrary to the full-time status it gives its mainland-based flight attendants.
The union objected and claimed that Allegiant was trying to avoid paying health care by holding employees to less than 20 hours of work a week even though their working time on each round-trip flight was at least 14 hours. Allegiant later changed course and made the flight attendants full time.
TWU International Vice President Thom McDaniel said Tuesday, “It’s sad to see the Allegiant management team so focused on short-term profits.”
Despite Allegiant flight attendants voting in December 2010 for union representation, they are still without a contract, and the two sides are now using a federal mediator.
