United Flight Attendants May Trade Away Job Protection For Higher Pay — So United Can Own A Regional Airline

At the beginning of the month both United Airlines and its flight attendants union said a deal was close. It’s been five and a half years since the airline’s cabin crew have had a raise. They rejected the deal their union negotiated last year, so this is a second attempt at it. And both sides suggest this could get done by March 27, the last scheduled day of bargaining this month.

The union needs ‘more’ than was in the first contract. They want sit pay (time spent in airports, not just boarding flights) and they need better language on layover hotels. And in a revolutionary first, United has said they can have sit pay, and that their flight attendants at every level of seniority would be the best paid in the industry – for the duration of the agreement.

At the same time, the airline has also said that each additional cost added into the contract has to be ‘paid for’ somewhere. That’s consistent with the union’s previous statements about the earlier contract – that all the money available for the contract had been achieved, and there was nothing left to gain.

United had floated ‘PBS’ or algorithm-scheduling, which is common in the industry but that United’s flight attendants are generally skeptical of because it feels like giving up significant control. So what are they going to give up instead?

Aviation watchdog JonNYC says that the union agreed to give up something I never expected: the prohibition on United Airlines owning a regional airline. ‘Scope’ is normally sacrosanct – and he suggests they’re willing to compromise on the principe that AFA-represented United Airlines flight attendants must be the ones working flights on airlines owned by United.

“Re: UA-AFA negotiations that are supposed to be finalized at the end of the month, I’m hearing they are removing LOA 24, which is the provision that has prevented UAL from having a wholly owned regional airline. No idea what the cost is in return to the union but one imagines it…

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) March 13, 2026

In the current flight attendant contract, LOA 24 is ‘satellite bases’ and LOA 25 is Scope, and JonNYC clarified he was referring to 25. (In the rejected agreement, scope was renumbered to 16.)

United Airlines declined to comment. AFA-CWA referred back to their March 9 negotiations update.

SkyWest-operated United Express

It’s surprising to many the flight attendant contract is the obstacle to a wholly-owned, separately staffed regional carrier at United – not the pilot contract. However if this restriction were relaxed, it’s the pilot contract that would effectively serve as the limit on what United could do.

• Currently, the agreement says that United cannot conduct commercial flight operations using a carrier in which it has a controlling interest without using flight attendants on the United system seniority list under a union agreement.

• It also says United will not establish or purchase an “alter-ego airline” in whole or in part.

• The only thing it can do with majority control in an airline is establish or buy a Part 135 commuter airline, and if it does it has to recognize AFA and bargain an agreement there.

• Another scope limitation is Foreign Nationals: specific Asian routes can be operated by flight attendants outside the agreement, but this is capped at 1.5% of the flight attendant seniority list, and union members can’t be furloughed until all foreign nationals are furloughed or terminated.

In other words, United cannot own or control a carrier a not use United flight attendants on the United seniority list, except for a commuter carrier where flight attendants are represented by the same union. But United cannot have a wholly-owned regional carrier with a separate, cheaper flight attendant group.

There’s no limit on minority stakes, though. Currently United owns a stake in Republic (which acquired Mesa). That stake is now 22.3%. United previously held a 49.9% stake in ManaAir, the parent of ExpressJet. They own 40% of CommuteAir.

On the pilot side, United Express flying is generally limited to planes with 76 seats or less.

• 50-seat aircraft are capped at 90% of the mainline single aisle fleet
• 70- and 76-seat planes are limited to 255 aircraft, with no more than 153 76-seat planes.
• Those 76/70 limits can expand if United adds qualifying new small narrowbodies: up to 325 total 70/76-seat aircraft and 223 76-seaters, with a formula that also forces removal of 50-seaters once 76-seaters exceed 153.
• At least 80% of all United Express flights have to be under 900 miles.
• United Express flights between hubs can’t exceed 5% of all United Express flying hours.
• At least 90% of United Express flights have to go in and out of hubs and specific large stations.
• Pilot furloughs force 76-seat planes to be converted to 70 seats.

Those are the restrictions United would still be forced to live with, if they could get the ownership and control prohibitions removed from the flight attendant agreement. The question is, how much is that worth to United? How much additional sit pay does that buy?

While it’s religious faith for many unions never to bargain on scope, I actually think it makes sense here for the flight attendants to be willing to live under the restrictions negotiated by the pilots. That’s how it works at most airlines. Pilots are in the stronger bargaining position. And if they’re comfortable with ownership with flying limits, there’s really not much risk to cabin crew.