Delta Breaks With Peers by Paying Flight Attendants During Boarding

A flight attendant walks on board a Delta Air Lines plane at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in Morrisville, North Carolina. 

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
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Delta Air Lines Inc. will begin paying its flight attendants for their work beginning during the boarding process, a shift from the industry standard in which their hours begin only when the aircraft doors close.

The change will begin on June 2 and include a boarding window increase to 40 minutes, Delta said in a memo. Flight attendants will be paid beginning at their scheduled boarding window for all flights, with compensation starting at 50% of a steward’s hourly rate. Delta Association of Flight Attendants, a unionizing effort for the airline’s stewards, reported the change on Monday night.