United Airlines Flight Attendants Ratify New 5-Year Contract With 31 Percent Raise

United Airlines’ nearly 30,000 flight attendants ratified a new five-year contract on May 12, which would give them an average 31 percent pay increase.

A statement from the Association of Flight Attendants–Communications Workers of America (AFA-CWA), the union representing United Airlines crew, indicates that 82 percent of United’s flight attendants voted in favor of the new contract, which will also provide boarding pay, boosting compensation by an average of 7 percent to 8 percent this summer. The airline will also provide a total of $741 million in retroactive pay and other upgrades.

According to the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), the union representing American Airlines flight attendants, the boarding pay compensates attendants for the often-unpaid time before the aircraft is in motion.

“The contract will immediately change the lives of United flight attendants, especially our thousands of new hires who have been hired since the pandemic,” AFA United President Ken Diaz said in the statement.

Sara Nelson, international president for AFA-CWA, announced that the United contract now leads the industry in total value for flight attendants.

“We will continue to press forward with all of our contracts and build power with our organizing to ensure flight attendants are respected with meaningful return for our work as aviation’s first responders,” Nelson said in the statement.

The association represents more than 55,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines.

Flight Attendant Pro, a website dedicated to careers for attendants, notes that most of them are usually paid hourly on “flight time” only, either while the plane is on the ground heading to the runway or while in the air. Typically, boarding passengers, preparing the cabin, safety checks, and waiting during delays may not be paid at the same hourly rate as flight time.

In addition, the five-year contract includes expanded job security, restrictions on red-eye flying, “sit pay” for scheduled and rescheduled “sits” over 2.5 hours, 401K contribution increases, and 10 weeks of paid maternity leave.

Flight Attendant Pro says that under the new contract, United’s first-year flight attendants will receive $36.92 per flight hour, while the top rate would rise to $84 per flight hour and could reach nearly $100 per flight hour later in the contract term.

It reported United’s previous pay scale starting at $28.88 per flight hour and topping out at $67.11 per flight hour after 12 years of service. Those rates had been unchanged since September 2020.

Comparing competing airline compensation packages, APFA notes that as of May, Southwest Airlines is paying flight attendants $37.51 per flight hour, with top pay reaching $94.46 per flight hour.

Since October 2025, American Airlines has offered $36.81 as the starting pay per flight hour, with a top rate of $84.50.

As of June 2024, Delta Air Lines offered a starting pay of $35.50 per flight hour with top pay at $79.80. Attendants are also paid 50 percent of their hourly rate for boarding time.

Citing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Flight Attendant Pro says flight attendants typically log 75 to 100 hours of flight time each month.