Originally Posted by
Whidbey
However, when we say...(moving days in the summer bid months and giving up ALV+15) cost us 100-150 pilots, that's really another way of saying that the work of those 100-150 pilots has been distributed across the pilot group via these productivity increases.
I do not believe that increasing max reserves costs jobs. To the extent that such an increase causes reserve pilots on an aircraft to work on average even one more minute than they did before, the staffing formula immediately begins to require more pilots on that aircraft.
But I agree with the rest of your statement. Moving days in the summer bid months and going to an 84-hour ALV did cost 100 or so jobs (assuming no change in block hours), according to the roadshow materials, by distributing the work among that many fewer pilots. The flip side then is that you have less overstaffing in the winter months, which means two things:
- Fewer pilots are forced to reserve during those months (good for QOL)
- Reserve pilots work more during those months (not so good for QOL)