Despite Frontier Airlines’ flight attendants threatening to go on strike, the airline said this week that it will offer direct flights this winter between Palm Beach International Airport and some of the Midwest’s biggest cities for about $60 to $90 to those who book this week.
Frontier will fly nonstop between PBIA and Chicago O’Hare International Airport starting Dec. 18. It will also start flying to Cleveland Hopkins International and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International on Dec. 21. Fares for those who book by Monday, Oct. 7 will cost $89 to and from O’Hare, and $59 for the other two airports.
The second-cheapest nonstop flights between PBIA and O’Hare cost $115 on American Airlines, a search of Google Flights conducted this week shows. The cheapest ones from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport cost $49 on Spirit Airlines.
More: Palm Beach International Airport ranked in Top 10 U.S. airports by Travel + Leisure readers
No other airline offers nonstop flights between PBIA and Cleveland Hopkins or Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky. Spirit offers nonstop flights between Fort Lauderdale airport and Cleveland for $39. Allegiant offers $40 nonstops Fort Lauderdale and Cincinnati.
Frontier flight attendants vote to go on strike
Frontier’s unionized flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, voted in September to authorize a strike. Union representatives did not comment Tuesday afternoon on how this would affect flights in and out of PBIA. The union said in a Sept. 18 statement that 99.6% of voting members elected to strike, with more than 3,700 of Frontier’s 4,000 unionized flight attendants casting ballots.
A strike date is not set. “The union decides when, where and how to strike without notice to management or passengers,” the union’s statement said. But the federal Railway Labor Act, which governs airline workers, makes it difficult for airline unions to conduct legal strikes — they need a decision from federal mediators that further negotiations would be pointless, which rarely happens.
Why Frontier flight attendants voted to strike
Frontier shifted in April to an “out-and-back” routing model where, instead of traditional multiday trips to multiple cities, flight attendants work on one-day “turns” where they return to their home airport after a single day.
The new business model reduces what flight attendants can earn each day, the union has said, because its members are paid based on time in the air and time away from home. It also increases their commuting time and expenses.
Flight attendants’ per diem on multiday trips is not taxed because flight attendants are identified as away from home, but that daily allowance on one-day turns is less money and taxable, the union has said.
The union in May asked the federal National Mediation Board, which oversees airline-related labor disputes, to intervene over the effects of Frontier’s new business model on flight attendants, saying the airline hasn’t bargained them.
Frontier did not deny the union’s claims in a statement it sent Tuesday to The Palm Beach Post. The union knows it can’t legally strike at this time, the airline said, “but is resorting to tactics designed to generate publicity and fuel fear at the expense of the flying public.” The airline said it has been meeting monthly with union representatives to bargain.
Chris Persaud covers transportation for The Palm Beach Post. Email tips to cpersaud@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Frontier offers direct PBIA-Chicago flights as strike threat looms
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