United Flight Attendants Disappointed By Shrinking Profit Sharing

United Airlines recently revealed its impressive financial performance for 2024, whereby the company reported record revenue and very healthy profits, with an even more positive outlook for 2025.

Jan 23, 2025 - 23:42
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United Flight Attendants Disappointed By Shrinking Profit Sharing

United Airlines recently revealed its impressive financial performance for 2024, whereby the company reported record revenue and very healthy profits, with an even more positive outlook for 2025.

Contractually, flight attendants are entitled to profit sharing based on a formula. However, many flight attendants are finding themselves quite disappointed. Despite profits for the company being up, profit sharing for flight attendants is down by over 40%.

United flight attendants see sharp profit sharing drop

The AFA-CWA, which represents over 25,000 flight attendants at United Airlines, has put out an announcement about the profit sharing that flight attendants will be receiving based on the company’s 2024 performance. Long story short, flight attendants will be receiving profit sharing equal to 5.3% of their eligible pay for the year.

This pales in comparison to the 9.2% profit sharing that they received the year before, and it also pales in comparison to the 10% profit sharing that Delta flight attendants are receiving for 2024 (and also received in 2023).

The union explains that it understands many members may be disappointed by this reduced profit sharing, and that some people count on this to get by:

As we reflect on the recent profit sharing announcement made earlier today we can celebrate the impressive profitability of our airline, which will fund our future industry-leading Contract. Simultaneously, it is normal to feel disappointed regarding the lower percentage of profit sharing this year compared to last year. The financial hardships borne by Flight Attendants cannot be mitigated by profit sharing alone. 

As Flight Attendants, many count on this compensation, not as a bonus but as a financial bridge in the midst of a national inflation crisis. It is after all, money we have earned through our dedication to our profession and our commitment to United’s success.

This profit sharing is based on the contractual framework that’s part of the contract that flight attendants have, which was negotiated. Long story short, Delta flight attendants and United flight attendants have very different profit sharing formulas.

In the case of Delta, the airline provides profit sharing based on 10% of the first $2.5 billion in full-year profits, and 20% of profits beyond that. Meanwhile in the case of United, profit sharing is based on 10% of full-year profits up to the profits of the previous year, while it’s 20% of full-year profits beyond the previous year’s results.

Essentially, United saw a huge jump in profitability from 2022 to 2023, and a smaller jump in profitability from 2023 to 2024. As a result, profit sharing is also down considerably.

The United profit sharing formula that was negotiated

United flight attendants need a new profit sharing formula

I’ve gotta say, if the goal of profit sharing is to get employees motivated to work in the best interest of the company, then United Airlines’ profit sharing formula really isn’t ideal. Of course I understand the concept of wanting to reward improvements in financial performance rather than just the status quo, but the way that this is set up is really quite demotivating.

I mean, United had an amazing year, and performed considerably better than the previous year, yet there was a massive decrease in profit sharing. For United flight attendants, the ideal situation would be for the airline to alternate between making no profits in one year, and making huge profits in the next year.

It’s quite a contrast to Delta, where employees continue to see huge profit sharing as long as the airline performs well. For that matter, this really doesn’t do much to advocate for unionization, when Delta flight attendants aren’t unionized and get the biggest profit sharing in the industry, while the union at United has negotiated an agreement that sees profit sharing potentially decrease even as profits grow.

I feel bad for United flight attendants. While flight attendants at both American and Delta have received significant pay increases, United flight attendants are still working on a pre-pandemic contract. With the amount of inflation we’ve seen in recent years, many flight attendants struggle to make ends meet.

United management has really been dragging its feet with agreeing to a new contract. Given that United is the last major carrier to be negotiating a new contract, you’d think this would be relatively straightforward, given how pattern bargaining works. But that’s not turning out to be the case.

As part of the new contract, hopefully the union also negotiates a new profit sharing formula. For example, United’s pilots have the same setup that Delta does, where they get 10% of the profits up to $2.5 billion, and 20% of the profits above $2.5 billion.

For many United pilots, their bonus alone will be more than the total annual pay of United flight attendants.

United flight attendants deserve a new contract

Bottom line

United Airlines flight attendants are disappointed to see that their profit sharing has been reduced from 9.2% to 5.3%, despite the company reporting record results. Unfortunately this can’t really be blamed exclusively on management, since this is the profit sharing formula that the union agreed to.

At American and Delta, profit sharing is based on the absolute profit, and the more money the airline makes, the bigger the bonus. At United, profit sharing factors in the increase in profit compared to the previous year. So once the airline consistently becomes very profitable, it’s not great for profit sharing.

Oh well, United flight attendants are still in a better situation than at American, where flight attendants are getting just 1.1% profit sharing.

What do you make of the profit sharing disappointment among United flight attendants?

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