Yea... Home basing is worth more to me than the nearly 13 grand the company spent last year getting me to and from work.....priceless

 

If ATI gets all the Amazon flying they are so eager to be the lowest bidder on, you'll likely have a rude awakening when the company demands a cvg base for the next contract and then you get to be the lowest paid, worst work rules in the business *and* commuters. Good luck. You guys have got to open your eyes.

 

So Kougarok K4, Atlas/Southern and Omni IBT 1224 airlines have it wrong??

 

Atlas definitely has it wrong.

Gateway travel that is on your time off and is taxed! Plus they make your arrive at base 10 hrs early.

Costs the average pilot probably $200-300 per month in taxes and it benefits the company way more than it benefits the pilots!

 

OK so most of the commercial DH K4 and Atlas/ Southern does the company would have to pay for anyway because it's overseas somewhere. ABX has a policy on Commercial DH that they'll do it from where you live as long as it's cheaper then CVG or you can make up the difference. It's one of the areas they're actually really good to work with on. I for example live near SEA so when there's a commercial DH to ONT they're more then happy to buy me a ticket direct. This sometimes saves me a few days per bid period. When we used to do Japan I would get a Business class or better ticket. (Anything over 8 hours international)

I commute once a month so home basing might be worth $8,000 per year. It's not priceless.

I do know one thing from talking to our union negotiators. There's only so much money a company can pay their crews and be competitive. ABX has minimal catering, no home basing and pretty good pay and benefits. Personally I would prefer to get myself to work and occasionally pack a sandwich for good pay and benefits.

It's just whatever the crews want to negotiate for.

 

We all have different priorities and experiences. And while the ABX domicile structure appears to have been relativly stable to date, consider that the ACMI business model at its core is about flexibility. Unlike the legacy carriers or UPS/FDX, there is no overall business structure that drives the basing model.

Or to put it another way, any ACMI carrier's basing system is just one middle manager's brain fart away from being blown up. We might think our individual situation in ANC/CVG/LAX/whatever is secure, but it is not.

Home basing is not just about avoiding jumpseating to work, it is what keeps ACMI management from starting to play the base-of-the-month game as contracts ebb and flow.

 

Yeah you would think they would try something like that. Ask ABX Air management how their MIA crew base worked out for them? It was for ACMI work mostly and is closed now. It's not cheap for them to open or close bases due to our contract.

 

And like I've said before, "K4 showed the way!"

You can be home based and have an industry standard, if not leading, contract. That is our goal.

 

I 100% agree with you! Just saying I would like to have an extra $15-20,000 a year in my pocket instead of home basing. And I am damn sure not going to give up business class or better on international flights over eight hours.

 

Fixed it for you.