United Airlines is closing flight attendant bases in Frankfurt, Hong Kong, and Tokyo effective October 1, 2020.
United Airlines Will Become A Smaller Airline October 1st
As CEO Scott Kirby has warned for weeks, United Airlines will shrink its workforce this autumn when CARES Act funding expires. The status of United’s international flight attendants has remained an open question and today United communicated to flight attendants that three international bases will close on October 1st.
United Closing Flight Attendant Bases In Frankfurt, Hong Kong, and Tokyo
In a note to flight attendants shared with Live and Let’s Fly, United outlines its plans to close flight attendant bases in:
- Frankfurt (FRA)
- Hong Kong (HKG)
- Tokyo (NRT)
Flight attendants who are eligible to work in the USA will have the opportunity to transfer to a U.S. base. Updates on base vacancies will be provided to flight attendants next month.
Explaining the decision, United told flight attendants:
“This was certainly a very difficult decision to make, and we recognize that closing any base places a hardship on those who live near those locations. In the current and future environment, we simply are not able to sustain an Inflight Base at these locations. Based on current information, we expect flight attendants based at these locations to have the opportunity to transfer to bases located in the United States, depending on their eligibility to work in the U.S., effective with the October schedule.”
The memo added:
“We know how difficult this news is and want to recognize the tremendous contribution to United by our flight attendants based in these locations. We can’t thank them enough for their service and we are committed to making the transition for our co-workers as easy as possible.”
United’s London Flight Attendant Base Will Remain
Flight attendants based at London Heathrow (LHR) will not be affected at this time.
No other base changes are expected at this time.
CONCLUSION
As someone who travels frequently to Germany, I will miss the Frankfurt base, though I still hope to see many of them in the future. Furthermore, I have been wowed by the service of Hong Kong and especially Tokyo-based flight attendants over the years…this is a real loss for United if they do not transfer.
The good news is that flight attendants will not necessarily lose their jobs. The bad news is that many who are unable to work in the United States will.
What does traveling to Frankfurt has to do with missing a base, do you sleep there?
I am in Germany all the time and fly United out of Frankfurt all the time. I appreciate the crews. By “Frankfurt base” I was referring to the people, not the physical structure of the base.
My Girl Friend when I was stationed in Monterrey California was Sandy Blevins. First Call Stew. We were the same age and Sandy was from Have De grace MD. She did long haul SF Chicago basically. I wonder if Sandy is still alive.
Was the Tokyo base shared between Haneda and Narita? Didn’t United have a mini-hub at one of those ones? I am guessing that will change…
Tokyo FAs were all NRT based.
I echo your comment on the HKG and NRT based FA’s. We took a family flight from NRT to the US two years ago and I was amazed at the level of service. It was the opposite of the cranky, surly US based FA’s we had several years ago on the same route. The head FA made an announcement at the end of the flight thanking us “on behalf of your HKG and NRT based crew”. That sentence explained everything and I would fear that UA would go back to the surliness of years ago after the base closures.
As an American based on London with United. I’m heartbroken by this news. So many of my friends and colleagues will be displaced or lose the job they love. All of these people have spent their lives in service of others. They have saved peoples lives in an emergency. Spent time taking care of others. They deserve respect. We are all grieving at the lose these fine professionals are going through.
As a Brit I really like the flights out of London operated by crews that have a lot of UK accents. Best of both countries.
Didn’t even know united had a base in HKG … well I learned something today. thanks
this blog sucks and repeats basic info that is publicly known already or posted days ago by other A list bloggers.
Well don, thanks for your click. But I broke it before Reuters or any other travel blog…check the Boarding Area feed if you need independent verification.
/mic drop/
Blog sucks??? It’s the best travel blog on planet Earth! When very busy, I read this one first and sometimes no other.
This Blog Matters
Thanks Derek!
For the last 3 months, those based in FRA NRT LHR and HKG haver not been able to bid a schedule. They’re getting paid the contractual 71 hours/month and stay home.
@pelican55:
“For the last 3 months, those based in FRA NRT LHR and HKG haver not been able to bid a schedule. They’re getting paid the contractual 71 hours/month and stay home.”
And many of those based in the US were given reserve schedules, were not called once (no flights), so they too could stay home, and were paid 78 hours reserve guarantee.
You can’t really equate not getting/bidding a schedule to the U.S. bases having a huge reserve poll and just sitting. Yes, most of us aren’t flying much on reserve. There is always the possibility of getting assigned something though…a trip, standby assignment, last minute sick trip, etc. Those fa’s at bases w/out schedules haven’t had to think about flying at all. (There were also U.S. bases w/out schedules for April, May and June.) At first I thought, “must be nice” but I quickly realized, no schedule…possibly no base. I feel very bad for those fa’s affected by these base closures and hope they continue flying with United if they are able to work in the states.
As an American, I am happy to see these foreigners go. Better them than us. When I heard that they were considering closing LAX, I prayed that management would close those international locations first. These people have taken our jobs and our flights for many years. And if they had actually decided to close a U.S. base and not the overseas bases, our President would probaly have intervened. We can celebrate now.
Right flysfo87. You can go and celebrate you xenophobic achievement!
The jobs in FRA, HKG, & NRT are actually staffed by AFA protected FAs. Many of them are actually Americans who live abroad.
I’m not so sure yesterday’s announcement means that U.S. bases are safe. Time will tell. The satellite bases probably aren’t a huge cost for the company, but they sure do complicate things when it comes to building monthly schedules. I feel bad for those fa’s based overseas (and not all of them are “foreigners” as stated above)…but this announcement was kind of inevitable.
What makes you think these jobs were yours? The employees were hired in non-US locations and have made a career with United. Your lack of sensitivity is shocking. Have you learned nothing in the last two weeks?
The closures are sad for multiple reasons. One is that the foreign-based flight attendants often provide better service than U.S. based flight attendants. Another is that having reserves abroad makes it easier to respond to a flight attendant getting ill. And unless UA preserves its rights, it won’t be able to restore these foreign bases without agreement from its flight attendant unions.
@flysfo87
Oh, I would have loved to see “our President” Trump get involved in this. I am wondering, if this weren’t United Airlines, say it were Microsoft or ExxonMobil, which have subsidiaries all over the world. If they needed to save costs in a radical way, would they also say “Let’s just close our international locations first and then see if we need to let anybody go in the homeland as well.”?
PS: I hope you have a nice party celebrating other folks’ terminations. Just don’t listen to anybody talking about bad karma…
… at the end of the day… an airline is a ‘business’. And every corporation, is in the business of making a profit. Decades ago, when these foreign bases were opened, it was a good business and economical decision by the airline. Tho there was a feeling after integration, that at some point in the future, there was a possibility that some of these foreign domiciles were probably going to close; the current climate change has clearly accelerated this process…. and perhaps they’re using COVI19 as an ‘excuse’… and believe me, base closures are not done yet. Give it 2 years and I’m betting on 2 more domestically.
I unfortunately agree with you, Pelican55, especially when you mention “using Covid19 as an excuse” to close bases. I say unfortunately because I hate for anyone’s way of life to be forced into a change they don’t want. Bases closed after 9/11 (Miami, Paris, Santiago) and this announcement shouldn’t shock anyone.
What’s new in this scenario is that, when United closed bases in the past, they always offered alternative bases for transfers, even for the overseas locations. When Taipeh, Santiago and Paris closed, these flight attendants could transfer to London, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Now UA is closing all remaining international bases except London but won’t let anybody transfer there. That’s as if they closed Newark and told everyone that they couldn’t transfer to Chicago, San Fran or Houston but will be fired instead. I heard the flight attendant union is fighting this in court because it says in their contract that an alternative base MUST be offered. It might be different if London was closed as well (where also non-US flight attendands without green cards are based, some of them with less seniority than in NRT, HKG and FRA).