American Airlines has officially completed their merger with U.S. Airways, and as a result flight attendants from both airlines can now fly with each other. Previously, only pre-merger U.S. Airways flight attendants could fly together, and the same for pre-merger American Airlines flight attendants.

As a result of this change, the airline is able to restructure how flights are crewed, in order to operate more efficient staffing levels. As a result of this, they need to increase staffing in some bases, while decrease in others.

Per an internal memo to American Airlines flight attendants:

Doing business as one airline and one team means making sure we best utilize our more than 27,000 flight attendants and your time. Post-FOI we finally have the ability to schedule inflight crews across all 13 domestic bases, which allows us to more efficiently build trip sequences and schedule flying based upon our integrated schedule. As we do so, it of course can have an impact on the relative size of individual bases—what made sense for base sizes for two separate airlines may not make sense when those airlines are combined.

We know how important the city where you’re based can be to your quality of life and to your future plans. That’s why we want to update you now on how we expect to see base sizes evolve over time. First and foremost, know that we intend to continue to grow American Airlines and our flight attendant team, both now and into the future. Our new, integrated flying schedule will require more flight attendants in our DFW and LAX bases and fewer in PHX and St. Louis.  

We expect to increase staffing at DFW and LAX by approximately 700 flight attendants at each base. Over the long-term we expect PHX and St. Louis will be about one-third smaller than their current size – a reduction of approximately 700 flight attendants in PHX and approximately 75 flight attendants in St. Louis. These changes allow us to more efficiently schedule our flight attendants across the integrated airline.

As a result of these changes, Dallas-Ft. Worth will be adding 700 flight attendants, Los Angeles will add 700 flight attendants, Phoenix will be reduced by 700 flight attendants, and St. Louis will be reduced by 75 flight attendants. 

Even though base sizes are being adjusted, the number of flights and destinations served to/from Phoenix and St. Louis won’t change. This change is more about properly reallocating the number of flight attendants in each base to reflect the current, now integrated, flight schedule.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below about American’s staffing changing at their bases.