Biden administration backs Virgin America flight attendants who won lower court ruling

The Biden administration has backing a group of California-based flight attendants who won a lower court ruling that found Virgin America failed to abide by the state s meal and rest break law.

The Justice Department's solicitor general told the U.S. Supreme Court it should not take an appeal after the 9th Circuit sided with flight attendants in a 2021 decision.

The lower court said airlines could comply with both the Federal Aviation Administration safety rules and California s meal and break requirement by staff ing longer flights with additional flight attendants in order to allow duty-free breaks. Virgin America, acquired in 2016 by Alaska Air Group, told the Supreme Court that the decision could cause nationwide havoc and require airlines to add more flight attendants per flights, and inevitably pilots, and will displace paying passengers. Alaska Airlines plans to file a response to the Justice Department's response, saying uniform national standards are critical to the safety of the U.S. air transportation system. The application of individual state laws would cause unacceptable levels of risk and complexity to air travel. The impact would only be limited to flights completely within California, according to lawyers for the flight attendants, and it is undisputed that Virgin can simply staff any wholly-intrastate flights with an additional flight attendant at the marginal cost of $100 per flight.

Airlines for America, a group representing American Airlines, United Airlines and others, said the California rules should be preempted by federal law and urged the Supreme Court to reverse the decision.

The group said that the only way airlines can comply with these laws is to add more flight attendants on longer flights and to schedule longer ground times between shorter flights. The Justice Department said the FAA and the Transportation Department are prepared to facilitate discussions outside of the litigation with the airlines, unions, and states to address and minimize any disruption to the traveling public that could arise.