Originally Posted by
Gone Flying
when did we not have an NYC base? Also there is no reason we can’t use the crews that lay over there to cover early AM departures or build 3-5 day trips that are commutable on at least one end. Unsure if true or not but I thought the NYC base trips went to crap in 2018. FWIW from those I’ve talked to at UA, B6 and AA their NYC base trips are not nearly as awful as ours.
Yep.
The awful trips there persist in complete defiance and denial of the fact that it is, and always will be, a mostly commuter base. They are the result of the "optimizer" from 2018+ trying to wring out an extra drop of on paper staffing efficiency. Its not because "New Yorkers like to leave early and get back late" as was actually said once. If that were the case then the airports would be ghost towns for most of the day instead of constantly slammed to capacity.
Trips could be built far better while still preserving the operation. If an LCC can do it with bare bones staffing so can we. Its also hard to operate several redundant fleet types from numerous bases in an attempt to drive a tiny increase in downline productivity but that's more a function of going to war with the army you have.
NYC is indeed a "success story" in that its much better than in days past on all accounts. But that's not because of completely tanking almost every pairing ever made for the base since 2018. That was more about one extra drop of efficiency from the "hey look we 'found' 800 pilots worth of fluff we can harvest!" than it was about preserving the operation. Flights leave every minute of the day almost always at or near max capacity. Pairings could be built better and the operation kept in tact.