It’s a sad day. It feels like a kick in the gut.” Some of the flight attendants have been with the company for 20 to 40 years
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — American Airlines announced that they are relocating more than 400 flight attendants who were based out of San Francisco International Airport, to other parts of the country.
American has had a flight attendant base at SFO for 50 plus years but that will soon end. Blaming competition, rising fuel costs and reduced customer demand. We’re told that this won’t affect flight service, but it will affect families that have worked for American and lived in the Bay Area for 20, 30, or even 40 years.
It’s a sad day. It feels like a kick in the gut. Being told that you’re going to have to go somewhere else is just the heartbreak of every individual that has been here in San Francisco,” says Tim Schwartz who is the Union President for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants for American at SFO.
Schwartz, a 27-year flight attendant for American Airlines who is based out of San Francisco, is reacting to news that he will have to leave California. One of 403 Bay Area American Airlines flight attendants that will be relocated or offered retirement packages as the company will close its San Francisco flight attendant base.
“We’re a close family and it makes it hard to know that our family will be broken up at the end of January and we’ll all be going to different places,” said Schwartz.
In a statement, American Airlines says, “We expect that San Francisco will maintain the same level of flying it does today, but there are no plans to grow San Francisco and no future flying prospects…”
Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution Lee Ohanian says sadly, this is not surprising, saying last year San Francisco lost six and a half percent of its population.
“San Francisco is perhaps the slowest growing major city in the country. The move by American is really just an indication that San Francisco is not a growing location and it’s more profitable for them to move flight attendants,” says Ohanian.
Some of the flight attendants being relocated have been with American for anywhere from 20 to 40 years. Ohanian says that is something the airline likely took into consideration.
“American is thinking we have a lot of these folks who are going to be retiring in the next 5-10 years if we want to replace them and keep that flight attendant base in San Francisco it’s going to be a killer for them to afford to live in the city paying $4,000, $5,000, $6,000 a month in rent,” says Ohanian.
Schwartz believes the financial impact of the pandemic might have been the end all here.
They’re still I think bleeding cash, they’ve got to be very careful with how they spend their money and I think the San Francisco flight attendants are just the casualty of that,” said Schwartz who tells us he is looking at the possibility of relocating to Phoenix or Dallas. LAX is not an option as there is already a waitlist for American flight attendants there.
As to how we stop this, Ohanian believes some of the company and housing regulations in California have to come off, and we need to be demanding more of our politicians. Demanding a focus on how to bring in and keep companies.