Las Vegas-based ultra-LCC Allegiant Air has asked for a court order that would prohibit its pilots from striking over the lack of progress on a new scheduling system, claiming the move would violate their collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
The dispute is over a provision in the parties’ August 2016 calling for implementation of a Preferential Bidding System (PBS) via a letter of agreement (LOA) amending the CBA by mid-April 2017. Allegiant, at the request of its pilots and their International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) representatives, selected Crewing Solutions to provide the key software that matches pilot requests with required work days. 
“At the outset, the process of negotiating and signing a contract with Crewing Solutions went on for several months and was hindered by delays,” the airline said in a filing before the US District Court, District of Nevada. Among them: “It was unclear if the SmartPref program the IBT wanted could be adapted to meet Allegiant’s needs at all and, if it could, how much time would be required to tailor it to Allegiant’s operational structure,” the airline added.
The union and the airline created a list of needed features, and Crewing Solutions conducted a test to demonstrate the product could work. The test ended in February.
Allegiant said that changes have been agreed upon, and Crewing Solutions is working on the modifications.