Originally Posted by
Flyby1206
Watch out for the laws of unintended consequences, they are a *****.
Today: 8hr scheduled overnight can be covered by 1 flight crew
Tomorrow: 8hr scheduled overnight can only be covered by 2 crews. Is the route still profitable with the added expense of overnighting another crew? Would it be more profitable to reduce frequency of flights(less pilots needed) and have 1 crew cover a 10hr overnight?
One: They're not going to reduce frequency. If the route could already be covered with fewer flights, they would have already reduced the frequency to save money. The extra couple hundred bucks it will cost them for an extra crew is completely irrelevant. Hell, the gas you burn while taxiing out costs more than it does to overnight another crew. Absolute worst-case, they DO reduce it, and change to bigger equipment (ie: mainline rather than an RJ). That means more flying for mainline and we all win.
Two: This is about safety. There are very few things I would risk giving up QOL for, but safety is one of them. We have to be better than the management types who say "Safety is the most important thing" and mean "Money is the most important thing". I'd rather improve a dangerous situation and fight for more days off on the next contract than risk being the next guy that ends up a smoking crater 'cause we were too tired to handle X emergency correctly.