Airlines around the world are struggling with a shortage of pilots. As a result, American Airlines is making efforts to keep its own pilots on board by promising a 17 percent pay increase by 2024.
AA’s CEO Robert Isom detailed the proposal in an internal video shared with employees earlier this week. According to CNBC, which has the video in its possession, the new contract offered to pilots would see 6 percent raise upon signing and 5 percent hikes in 2023 and 2024.
The American Airlines move follows rival United Airlines’ tentative agreement with its pilots’ union to increase salaries by around 14 percent in the next year and a half. However, United’s deal wasn’t made official and is now on pause as the union considers recent developments.
“United put forth industry leading pay, and we matched that for our team,” said Isom in the clip adding that AA’s pilots will be “paid well, and paid competitively, no matter what.”
The Allied Pilots Association, which represents American’s pilots, is currently in the process of reviewing the proposal, according to the union’s spokesperson Dennis Tajer.
It doesn’t come as a surprise that the airlines are making an extra effort to keep their pilots happy. The industry has an obvious lack of pilots to cover the increasing demand for traveling, which has picked up in 2022 and is expected to continue going up in the coming months.