Originally Posted by
Pineapple Guy
iahflyer,
There's at least one serious error in your logic. NFLs haven't replaced SILs. Perhaps that was the company's hope, but it didn't work out that way. As Alfa and you both stated, there were tons of SILs last year, and "should" have been tons this year. But now we have NFLs which hardly anyone takes. So if the company's goal was/is to save money, and NFLs are so under utilized, why wouldn't they come out and offer at least a fair number of SILs?
Because they are not required to offer SIL's and when they audited the whole program it was costing them money. The 15 hours saved did not offset the increase in Green Slips unless a category was really overmanned. It appears the categories are not as overmanned this winter as last. ER Captains in NY are running about the required numbers most days. In Atlanta they are above required by not by a whole lot. Last winter they often had 4o more Captains then required. They also has some occasions last winter where they had to cancel flights when bad weather hit and reserves were out of position. More reserves might have saved those flights. It takes a huge number of SIL to offset the cost of one cancelled international flight.