Scheduling Committee Update - March Schedules & ORD
Yesterday, 03:54 PM
February 16, 2017

Greetings from a 3-hour sit in CVG!

Within this update we will discuss the March lines, the status of the flight file, and briefly address the Chicago domicile’s recent downsizing. As you read this update, keep in mind that there are three variables that affect the Crew Planners’ ability to produce quality lines:
Productivity (i.e., The Flight File) – measured in daily averages and average trip values.
Staffing – Too few pilots limits the number of lines.
Total Block – needs to be an amount appropriate to our productivity for any chance at line quality. Too much flying done inefficiently = extra trips to cover said flying. Extra trips are then crammed into the same number of lines reducing days off, and causing 4-on-2-off events.
The ERJ schedules continue to improve, albeit slowly, posting daily averages in DFW and ORD with 4:32 and 4:36 respectively. LGA lines were built at a strong 4:45 per day. On the E145, the daily averages are climbing due to improvements in the flight file, but once again, staffing (or lack thereof) is again the limiting factor in March, at least for DFW and LGA. You may notice sequences in some of the bid packets that start with what appears to be a lost day on day one as indicated by a dash. Keep in mind that a "-" does not always mean a lost day. In these instances, it is indicating that one calendar day contains parts of 2 separate duty periods. For example, the first duty period of the trip, "Day 1," begins Sunday at 17:00 and ends Monday at 02:00. You'll get your legal rest and then begin the second duty period Monday evening.

ERJ DFW:
102 Regular lines, 6 CDO Lines, 2 2-Day lines
Just under half of the packet has 3 days off in between all sequences, the rest have 2 or fewer occurrences of 2 days off between sequences.
ERJ LGA:
61 Regular lines
5 2-Day lines with the rest 4-Day – 21 of the lines have 3 days off between all sequences, the other 40 have 2 or less instances of 2 day off events.
ERJ ORD:
65 Regular lines, 8 CDO Lines
2 2-Days, 4 3-Days
30 lines have 3 days off between sequences, the remaining have only one occurrence of 2 days off between sequences.
ORD ERJ March is a good example of what lines look like when a base is getting close to adequately staffed for the total block flown at the current level of productivity. It has some variety, and 2 day off occurrences are limited to once per line.

I'd like to take a moment to address the reduction of lines that ORD ERJ has seen in the last 3 months. That status is down from 139 lines in December and has seen a steady decline each month since to 73 lines in March.

I've been told that Ric Wilson is in the process of writing a communication to the pilots that we should see in the near future regarding these ORD reductions, and what we can expect to see in 2017. I do not know specific details of his communication, so we will see what he has to say, but I am happy to hear that management intends to communicate with the pilots on this.

What we do know, is that prior to the re-opening of LGA in January, a majority of the New York flying was covered by ORD crews, with some built into DFW lines as well. When the base re-opened, it logically follows that a large chunk of that flying would come out of the ORD bid packet. The evidence of this is in the total block numbers for the ERJ fleet.

From FEB to MAR, total block for the fleet was relatively the same, around 17,500 hours. However, as you can see below in the chart, LGA INCREASED ~ 2,500 hours over FEB's numbers while ORD DECREASED 1,700 hours and DFW dropped ~ 1000. In the same way, if MIA were to re-open tomorrow, DFW would likely see a significant reduction in line total and block hours, as a large portion of MIA flying is covered by DFW crews. Looking at it another way, ORD had 139 lines in December, and is now down to 73. LGA currently has 61. Adding the two together, you can see very clearly where most of the flying has come from.

You may notice that there are no scheduled E140 flights in March. Envoy has shared that the E140s are part of the fleet plan through May 2017, but for next month they will be primarily used as spares. The Company expects some quantity of E140s to remain in the fleet through at least 2018.

Envoy's original plan was for LGA to host 10-15 ERJs at the base, but it quickly became apparent through the flight file received from AAG that LGA would need to be larger, and the flying shifted quickly. LGA is currently at 20 ERJs and will grow to 27. Company planners have said that this means ORD will contract a little bit more and then will then stabilize once LGA has finished growing.

I know that the above may not answer all of your questions, or alleviate all of our ORD pilot’s concerns. I look forward to Captain Wilson providing us all with more specifics in his upcoming communication.
DFW 175
Now our largest Status with 112 lines. 2 1-Day lines, 5 3-Day lines.
For March the 175 line count to total block ratio was the lowest it has been yet, resulting in more 2 day offs than we usually see for that fleet.
The 175 has stagnated in 2017 at an unproductive 4:25 average.
ORD CRJ
108 regular lines, 7 for ASE. All 4-Days with roughly 27 lines with 3 days off in between sequences.
The CRJ continues to struggle with low daily average (4:17). It has a similar line count to total block ratio as the 175 for March, but a less productive daily average resulting in more 2 day off events.
Block Hours DFW 145 DFW 175 ORD 145 LGA 145 CRJ ASE System Totals
Mar.
2017 7430 9181 5004 4889 8122 562 35188
Feb.
2017 8429 8535 6699 2423 8138 502 34726
Net Change -999 +646 -1695 +2466 -16 +60 +462

Mar. Lines Hard Lines RSV, COMP.
STBY. Avg. Credit Avg. Days Off Avg. Block Per Day
DFW EMJ 102
(-17) 28
(-1) 78.15
(+2.02) 14.00
(+1) 4.32
(+.10)
DFW 175 113
(+18) 20
(+7) 75.54
(-0.63) 13.1
(even) 4.25
(+.03)
LGA 145 61
(+29) 13
(+2) 78.45
(+0.42) 13.4
(-.2) 4.45
(+0.27)
ORD EMJ 73
(-66) 24
(-2) 77.37
(-0.81) 13.60
(+.60) 4.36
(+.08)
ORD CRJ 100
(-4) 14
(even) 76.19
(-1.03) 12.69
(+.36) 4.17
(-.01)
ASE 7
even 4
(even) 81.17
(+9.46) 13
(-.28) (included in above number)

(+/- from last month)
Company Crew planners and the Scheduling Committee continue to seek improvements to the flight file to get our productivity up, there is progress, but it is slow. We all look forward to our influx of new hires in recent months and welcome their arrival on the line. Time will tell if our hiring numbers are sustainable and will outpace attrition.

The total block is what it is, the amount of flying that the company takes on directly impacts our lines and thus, our quality of life. Right now, the amount of flying we are undertaking at the current productivity is resulting in the majority of our lines containing multiple 2 day off events between our 4-day sequences.

Your Scheduling Committee will continue to do the best that we can to continue the improvements we have been slowly seeing.

Speaking of productivity, my 3-hour sit at an outstation has just about concluded, time head back to DFW. We’ll talk to you again next month.

Aaron Shields
Chairman
Scheduling Committee