Flight Attendants Union Chief Targets Regional Pay, Delta, and Worker Data

Photo Credit: Sara Nelson, Association of Flight Attendants' International President, at the Skift Aviation Forum in New York City on November 12, 2026. Skift Flight attendants and pilots saw massive pay jumps in recent negotiations. Association of Flight Attendants International President Sara Nelson doesn’t expect a repeat. “I don’t think that we’re going to see the kind of increases that we saw this last time again, unless the industry turns around. Unless we have peace on Earth and everything is going swimmingly,” Nelson said Thursday at the Skift Aviation Forum. The last wave of contracts was effectively the first real bargaining since 9/11, according to Nelson, and followed years of bankruptcies, mergers, and pandemic delays that left contracts “four, five, six years late.” Now, the union wants smaller, more regular raises through more frequent bargaining and is turning to new fights: the pay gap at regional airlines, its