Originally Posted by
Bucking Bar
ACL,
It always cracks me up when managers get upset about their budgets for things like unscheduled engine removals and IROPS. They seem to forget these are unplanned events, and while I do applaud their attempt at smoothing out the budget, they are silly to get upset when the unplanned things don't go as planned.
The memo should go to the birds, the gods and whoever creates viruses.
Do we at least get credit for the DECREASE in SICK TIME when we stopped doing a double red eye to Manaus? If you were not sick before that trip, you were before you got home.
Well when the managers are getting pressure from the top, they do what managers do. It is trickle down economics at its finest.
As for your first comment, you are correct. They do have a lot of data to support a mathematical formula for "unplanned" repairs, and as a result of this formula, they have decided to pair down part stores, budgets, and staffing. As a result the reliability and on time metric are getting effected.
Reality is, over time the formula works, but not over a budget year, and that is where most compaines run in to issues when they build budgets with no wiggle room. As a result the varriances in a fiscal year's budget to actual need to be made up in other places. There are many ways to do this, but frankly, one of the quickest ways to rein in a budget to actual deficit is to take it out of a soft target. In most corporations that is labor. This is not unique to DAL or the airline industry.