Originally Posted by
sailingfun
Another post with forum histeria without any real thought. As already discussed it requires 3 pilots verses two for each flight on a transcon turn. There has been nothing to stop any airline from flying these as a augmented turn for at least the last 30 years. No airline does them because it makes no sense. Even JetBlue who really wants transcon turns never considered augmenting them.
One other consideration. If Delta did decided to fly transcon turns if your not in the top 20 percent in category don't plan on seeing one. A SFO turn would pay around 12:30. Fly 6 a month and you will have 75 hours. Two three day groupings would look pretty nice as a monthly schedule! Not going to happen however, just to costly for the company
Except, that it will be a defacto increase in available pilots without actually having to hire more. If NY based pilots are sitting in their crashpads instead of a hotel in LA, they are available to fly more... and as already shown, we are hos, and will pick up more flying. Not all will, but some. It is calculated risk. And why wouldn't you if you could pick up a CDO that night for an additional 7+30? Cha ching.