Frontier attendants, airline reach tentative deal

DENVER – Frontier Airlines flight attendants celebrated a tentative contract with the Denver-based budget carrier Wednesday, calling off a demonstration by attendants from 20 airlines in town for a union convention.

The deal, reached Tuesday night with oversight from the National Mediation Board, will replace a 2011 agreement reached after the former owner of the airline declared bankruptcy and pushed for concessions.

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said the deal includes significant pay increases, schedule flexibility and quality-of-life improvements and other benefits but declined to release details until union representatives review the details at a March 28 meeting. Local union president Jen Sala said it would put the airline on par with other major carriers and make it possible for flight attendants to quit second jobs that have become common under the bankruptcy era contract.

“We deserve a better quality of life,” Sala said.

Negotiations began in November 2015 to replace the 2011 contract, the first reached after flight attendants voted to unionize in 2010.

Flight attendants pushed the AFA to hold its annual convention in Denver to help put pressure on the airline. They also demonstrated at Frontier bases and waged a social media campaign by posting selfies of themselves wearing union pins.

The tentative deal comes two months after Frontier pilots approved a new contract after nearly three years of negotiations. That deal provided an average 53 percent pay increase.

The company declined to comment on the flight attendants’ deal.