American Airlines Wins Flight Attendant Appeal Over Covid Buyout

Three former American Airlines Inc. flight attendants claiming age discrimination lost their Ninth Circuit appeal challenging a voluntary buyout program offered during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The buyout program “was a response to the extraordinary drop in demand for air travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said. The employment conditions the flight attendants complained of were “consistent with federal policy guidelines at that time,” the court said.

“Even assuming the federal policy guidelines were unreasonable, the situation was not attributable to any conduct by American Airlines,” the ...