American Airlines Has Too Many Flight Attendants For September — Asks 1,205 To Take Unpaid Leave

American Airlines is preparing to let as many as 1,205 flight attendants take September off without pay. That is roughly 4% of the airline’s flight attendant workforce, spread across every crew base. The largest number is at Dallas–Fort Worth, where American has tentatively set aside 309 voluntary leaves. Charlotte gets 168, Chicago O’Hare 144, Miami 137 and New York LaGuardia 133. American has more flight attendant staffing than it needs for the schedule it intends to operate after the summer peak. There’s a normal post-summer decline in flying. The fall schedule is starting earlier than usual this year. More than 2,000 new-hire flight attendants came onboard. American reduced its schedule in response to higher fuel prices. There are fewer flights than originally planned, that’s starting earlier than last year, but there’s still more flying than a year ago. What American Is Offering A Voluntary Leave of Absence is unpaid, and under this program for a single month. Under the flight attendant contract, leaves are awarded to volunteers based on seniority, first to those working a set schedule (lineholders) and then to those on reserve. Flight attendants on voluntary leave won’t pick up trips for the month, but their seniority continues to accrue along with sick and vacation leave, and they retain medical insurance and non-rev travel benefits. American and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants opened bidding for September on Monday. The Timing And Size Of This Program Are Significant American also offered September leaves last year, opening those bids on the same date. Airlines reduce flying compared to summer peak after Labor Day. The August leave offer, though, was “first time in recent memory” union leaders had seen it stll during peak summer and American made those leaves available across all bases. The summer peak schedule started earlier this year, pulling the summer season forward, and that pulled the fall transition forward too. The fall reduction in Charlotte began August 5, versus late August in 2025. Charlotte flight attendant hours dropped about 6% from July to August as a result, as they moved from nine to eight banks of flights. Boston August hours fell about 5% from July for similar reasons. September though brings much larger post-Labor Day staffing reductions. There were 312 voluntary leaves in August and that’s expected to grow to 1,030 for September. Looking at numbers from five bases it seems to be about 36% larger than last year. Base September 2025 September 2026 Change DFW 237 309 +30% CLT 126 168 +33% DCA 26 39 +50% ORD 77 144 +87% PHL 106 119 +12% 572 779 +36% The Union Has Been Asking For More Leaves APFA as pushed American to increase the number leaves available. There are flight attendants who like health care without having to work trips. An April Boston update greeted the program with the headline “VLOA is back!” Management initially proposed 30 August leaves for Chicago and the union says it persuaded them to offer 40. At Philadelphia, American initially proposed just eight. The union got the number increased to 55 by agreeing to a higher average monthly workload for the flight attendants who remained. More voluntary leaves mean more people can take an unpaid month off while retaining benefits and seniority, while junior flight attendants work harder. This does help some junior flight attendants move off reserve temporarily, getting sent back when the leaves disappear. Operating With Fewer Flight Attendants May Have Reliability Risk Some of the leaves are reducing operating cushion at the airline. Flying is reducing less than flight attendant staffing. American kept more flight attendants on for summer to make sure they had extra crew available to operate flights. That’s expensive, and we might see staffing get tight if there are major weather events late in a month. It seems like there will be less slack during severe irregular operations. Topics on this page