Delta Will Start Paying Flight Attendants During Boarding
Delta Air Lines has revealed that it will start paying flight attendants during boarding. The Atlanta-based carrier will be the first major U.S. airline to do so. Normally, flight attendants are not on the clock until the boarding door closes.
Delta will pay crew members 50% of their standard hourly rate for boarding, according to a company memo, as reported by Insider. The carrier is also increasing boarding time for narrow-body flights to 40 minutes from 35.
The move comes during a unionization drive for Delta flight attendants, the airline’s biggest work group. “It seems they are feeling the heat. Keep going!”, the organizing union said in a statement. “They also know that changing domestic boarding time from 35 to 40 minutes without adding a benefit would create an uproar—just as the “test” in Atlanta did back in October.”
Delta has more than 20,000 flight attendants, which are not unionized, unlike at other major U.S. airlines.
The boarding pay comes after a 4% raise Delta announced in March. That was the first annual pay bump for employees since 2019.
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If flight attendants are not paid during boarding, would they be eligible for workers compensation if injured while assisting a passenger during the boarding process?