United Airlines flight attendants ratify new contract with 31% raises
A United Airlines airplane approaches the runway at Denver International Airport on March 23, 2026.
To Drago | Getty Images
United Airlines flight attendants accredited a new five-year labor contract with 31% common raises to base pay by August and different enhancements, marking the final of the key carriers with unionized flight crews to achieve a post-Covid deal.
The labor deal would give United’s roughly 30,000 flight attendants their first raises in shut to 6 years. The firm and the flight attendants’ union reached a preliminary deal in March. Crews had rejected a contract final yr.
The union mentioned the contract gained 82% approval from the flight attendants, with near 90% of them voting.
“The contract will immediately change the lives of United Flight Attendants, especially our thousands of new hires who have been hired since the pandemic,” mentioned Ken Diaz, president of the United chapter of the Association of Flight Attendants.
The contract additionally consists of boarding pay, or pay for when the plane’s door is open and vacationers are getting on. Airlines had for years began flight attendants’ pay clock as soon as the boarding door was closed.
The contract comes with a roughly 7% to eight% improve in compensation and $741 million in again pay, in addition to quality-of-life enhancements like restrictions on red-eye flights and “sit pay” throughout disruptions of greater than 2½ hours.
