Originally Posted by
flyguy81
Yeah, each airline considers RON as PART of the staffing model. They don’t use it for 100% of their staffing model, because that’s asinine.
You can’t consider RON only when you’ve got 3 dozen planes flying through the night, not RON anywhere. That’s why daily departures also plays a part. Instead of EMO’s, you have a morning bank…pilots can start work then. Nobody wants to go to work or get on a plane at 4 am…but they sure as hell love going to work at 8-9 am. Add some DHD’s if you need to…cheaper than playing the Titanic deck chair shuffle with people’s lives.
They decided the “best way” to do RE trips was the most inefficient, unproductive way possible….2 duty period, 3 days. It’s great for pilots that want to get paid to do little work. It’s terrible for productivity and staffing. We’re not flying a 777 from SYD to LAX….Embed the RE leg into pairings based out west…you don’t transit 0300, and don’t need 15 hrs rest. It’s a late PM. Get your 14 hrs rest in BWI and go back to work by 1700-1800. Bonus…you don’t need to displace 300 pilots to do it.
For an airline where the CEO literally quoted Herb last week about putting employees first….this place does anything but. Displacements, new JS rules, etc.
Southwest isn’t doing that either. Obviously there are even more factors than RON and daily departures to consider when establishing staffing levels. Otherwise ATL would have closed this year.
We are already shifting the banks of flying in DEN in the manner you describe to optimize connections. That doesn’t require more staffing in DEN. We are increasing Nashville flying as well, with no extra staffing in that base either.
You can’t properly staff red eyes from the west coast until you have red eye reserve. I don’t know about the other bases but starting in February, very few of the BNA red eye pairings are 2 legs anymore. Many are 4 days with a red eye at the end.