Frontier Airlines’ pilots union has reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract with the company after more than a year and a half of negotiations.
The four-year agreement freezes pay for a year for most of Frontier’s approximately 650 pilots, according to Frontier Airline Pilots Association president Jeff Thomas. It includes future cost-of-living pay increases and future pay scale reductions, making it essentially “cost neutral,” Thomas said.
“We adjusted the overall rates but nobody will be taking any pay reductions as a result of it,” Thomas said. The independent pilots union had been in negotiations with Frontier since April 2005.
“I think it’s a very realistic contract for where the industry is right now,” Thomas said. “It certainly doesn’t look at all like one of the contracts that came out of the bankruptcy filings.”
The agreement comes after Frontier warned in early December that it would not break even in the December quarter as earlier expected, saying then it would instead would lose 12 to 17 cents a share due to soft passenger traffic in November and high fuel costs in December. But that was before the December snowstorms hit Denver, costing Frontier millions.
“This tentative agreement is a tremendous step forward for both our pilots and the company as we collectively prepare ourselves for the strategic growth that lies ahead,” said Frontier chief executive Jeff Potter in a written statement.
The pilots union agreement adds a defined contribution retirement plan in addition to the existing 401(k) plan and includes some changes in work rules and productivity improvements that benefit the company. Frontier has “industry leading pilot productivity” and one of the most competitive crew operating costs in the industry, according to Thomas.
The agreement also allows Frontier to use non-Frontier Airlines Pilots Association pilots for its Q400 turboprop operation. That had been a major point of contention between the pilots union and the company. But Thomas said the contract limits Frontier’s regional jet operation and future Q400 turboprop operation relative to the size of its main Airbus operation, which is flown by unionized pilots.
“The intent is that this flying should promote growth” of the mainline operation, Thomas said.
The pilots’ union board of directors voted to approve the agreement last week, and plans to put it before the pilots for an electronic vote in mid-January. Results are expected in mid-February, and the agreement would become effective around March 1.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-954-1488 or at kyamanouchi@denverpost.com .
