Originally Posted by
Left Handed
For example:
FLL-ORD-FLL= 3.5 each way for 7 hrs total.
ORD-RSW-ORD= 3.25 each way for 6.5 total.
If it was a turn the crew would get 7 (or 6.5) hrs for the day. If they did it 3 days in a row they would credit 21 (19.5) hrs.
What is happening now is a 3 day trip for the FLL crew:
Day 1: FLL-ORD for 3.5
Day 2: ORD-RSW-ORD for 6.5
Day 3: ORD-FLL for 3.5
total 13.5 hrs for 3 days of flying because we have no true min day, only trip averaging.
All they have to do is keep the rotation of pilots every day and the flights get covered at a lesser cost than 3 days of turns for both cities. And crews are now on overnights instead of home every night. Hotels cost less than a pilot costing 6 extra hours over the same days. I hope that is less confusing than it looks.
*disclaimer- the flight times may or may not be accurate. For illustration purposes only. Not for navigation.
That math doesn't really add up. That crew only did 2 days worth of work for 13.5 which if it were turns the company would have paid 13.5 anyway with no hotels and they wouldn't have burned a third duty period. You're showing more pay for the turns over three days but the company is gaining an extra day of productivity out of a crew in the same amount of duty periods. Trip averaging is bad for many reasons (although it is industry standard) but this scenario doesn't explain why it leads to crews overnighting in other bases.