United Continental to offer 13 percent pay increase to pilots: Bloomberg

Reuters
A United Airlines plane with the Continental Airlines logo on its tail, sits at a gate at O'Hare International airport in Chicago October 1, 2010. REUTERS/Frank Polich

(Reuters) - United Continental Holdings Inc <UAL.N> is offering pilots a 13 percent pay increase in 2016 in a contract that would put them at or near the top of the U.S. airline industry's pay scale, Bloomberg reported, citing two people briefed on the plan.

The 2016 increase would be followed by annual increases of 3 percent and 2 percent, Bloomberg said.

Reuters reported last week that the second-largest U.S. airline by capacity and its pilots union had reached an agreement in principle to extend the labor contract that covers United's more than 12,000 pilots by two years.

United's contract with the Air Line Pilots Association International (ALPA) had been due to run through early 2017. The union and the airline in early October agreed to enter into talks to negotiate an extension of the contract, ahead of original plans to open talks in 2016.

The company does not discuss proposed labor agreements, a United spokesman said in an email. ALPA was not immediately available for comment.

United's management has been focusing on securing labor contracts following a leadership change in September. New Chief Executive Oscar Munoz, now on temporary leave following a heart attack, has said the integration of United and Continental since their 2010 merger had been "rocky" for employees and customers.

(Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)