Originally Posted by
Trip7
Many are using the optimizer as a scapegoat. IMO it's overblown. The main reason for the degradation in trips are a lethal combination of poor staffing, RJ flying upgauging to Mainline, and reduction of fleet mix/fleet simplification caused by retirement of 88, parking of many 717s. Many 737/320/7ER pilots are simply not used to operating the amount of legs we do now. Heck even the 717 back in the day with a LAX base had very nice trips with no more than 3 legs a day. When the plane was moved back east the schedules turned the jet into CRJ200 2.0.
It's a shock factor. Folks need to get used to it because it's not going to get better anytime soon as the Regionals collapse. Take your time, wind the clock, you're too tired to fly, call in fatigued.
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You came to the right conclusion for the wrong reasons. While some of the ‘reasons’ you cite contribute at the margins, the optimizer was already turning the screws back in 2019.
But the true root cause for why it will not get better is because Flight Ops leadership cannot allow more credit into the optimizer mix, or they will be fired.
Pilot staffing is THE limiting factor for the airline growing back and
capturing revenue. The summer 2023 plan was recently planned by network to notably exceed 2019’s schedule. With the VEOP and 500 retirements a year, we would have to hire probably 1500 more pilots than we can
possibly onboard, even at a record 200/month (and even then, they can’t train what they are hiring). Flight Ops said “no f-ing way” we can do that, so network is pushing them to pull out all the stops…
As a result, every pilot hired simply goes to increase the schedule, not for staffing relief. There won’t be relief until after summer of 2023, when hiring can finally start to allow a “pad” again. Network is pushing flight Ops to max-fly every single month, and if JL and gang ease off the gas,
they will lose their jobs.
I don’t say any of this to make excuses for management. On the contrary, their I’ll-advised decisions got us here, and they refuse to even acknowledge it much less address it . But understanding where we are is key to understanding when it will (or won’t) get better. I’ll walk the picket line with fervor, but tactically it won’t change a dang thing. Strategically, however, we can be shaping the battlefield on multiple fronts.