Your AFA Alaska Master Executive Council (MEC) and Alaska Airlines management have entered into a side letter of agreement that allows qualified Flight Attendant Trainers to certify Initial Operating Experiences (IOEs) for Flight Attendant trainees.

A copy of the side letter of agreement (signatures pending) can be found by clicking here. You may also find the agreement on the “contract” page of the AFA Alaska website: http://afaalaska.org/contract.

Previously only management employees holding a Flight Attendant-qualified FAA certificate could certify IOEs for trainees. This agreement modifies §CBA 30.E [Trainers Performing Probationary Observation Flights], which already provided for Trainers to conduct Probationary Observation Flights, and incorporates IOEs into that provision.

This side letter of agreement was supported by our Flight Attendant Trainers and developed with input from that group. The major benefit of the agreement is that a larger pool of certifying personnel allows IOEs to be conducted during training. In the past, graduating trainees had to fly their IOEs immediately following graduation.

In addition to being worried about flying their IOEs, trainees also had to be concerned with positioning themselves to their respective new domiciles prior to their start date. Depending on how closely the start date followed graduation, this may have been a stressfully short period of time. With IOEs finished prior to graduation, trainees can truly celebrate graduation without worrying about possibly flying the next morning. They can also focus exclusively on moving to their new domiciles.

IOEs for Class 2016-01 begin today, so you may see some Flight Attendant Trainers out there certifying IOEs in the next couple days. Congratulations to the first graduating class of 2016 and thanks to our Flight Attendant Trainers for their continuing efforts to get our trainees out to the line!

In solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; LEC Presidents-elect Tim Green and Brice McGee

AFA LOA 2016-05-03 Trainers Performing Probationary Observation Flights or IOEs PENDING