United Airlines Flight Attendants Approve New Five-Year Contract

United Airlines flight attendants ratified a new five-year labor contract that provides 31 percent average raises to base pay by August and delivers their first wage increases in close to six years. The agreement, approved with 82 percent support from those who voted, comes after crews rejected a contract last year. The company and the flight attendants' union reached a preliminary deal in March.

Close to 90 percent of the roughly 30,000 flight attendants cast ballots. "The contract will immediately change the lives of United Flight Attendants, especially our thousands of new hires who have been hired since the pandemic," said Ken Diaz, president of the United chapter of the Association of Flight Attendants.

This contract is the last of the major carriers with unionized flight crews to reach a deal post-Covid.

It includes boarding pay for when the aircraft's door is open and travelers are getting on, a change from years of practice that began the pay clock only after the boarding door closed. The labor deal also brings a roughly 7 percent to 8 percent increase in compensation along with $741 million in back pay. 5 hours.

A United Airlines plane approached the runway at Denver International Airport on March 23, 2026, as the carrier moved toward finalizing the agreement that flight attendants ratified. The deal ends a period in which United's cabin crews had gone without raises longer than those at peer airlines.

com reported that the union presented the contract as a significant step for both veteran attendants and the thousands hired since the pandemic.

The back pay component addresses the extended period without increases that stretched nearly six years for many workers. U.S. airlines with unionized flight attendant groups.

United's deal follows earlier settlements at other carriers that had already secured similar improvements in pay and working conditions.