The availability of cheap fares, including cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages is expected to be unchanged as a result of pilots at United Airlines and the old Continental Airlines agreeing to a single union contract.
As part of the new contract pilots are getting raises averaging slightly above 43 percent including larger retirement contributions. A lump sum of $400 million is also being distributed to the pilots.
This contract makes United the last of the three largest U.S. airlines to gain pilots approval for a major expansion of the use of larger regional jets with a minimum of 70 seats.
67 percent of the United and Continental pilots voted to approve the contract. Almost 98 percent of its over 10,000 eligible pilots participated in the ratification vote. The new contract expires at the beginning of 2017 and replaces the most recent United pilots contract completed in 2005 when the airline was operating under bankruptcy protection.
Pilot union representatives hailed the new contract as the end of bankruptcy and concessionary contracts.
While the raises and some of the other changes take effect immediately, United and former Continental pilots will continue to fly separately until United finishes sorting out its pilots seniority list.
Seniority is important because it determines which pilots receive the most desirable schedules, and who flies which planes, which in turn is a significant factor in pilot pay. Seniority integration will take several months and may require binding arbitration.
The airline industry has been pushing to expand the use of 76 seat planes because they can be flown profitably even when fuel prices spike. Pilots have generally opposed the use of such planes because they do not want airlines to shift too much flying to the smaller, cheaper planes.
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