Dictum

Which cities are being considered for virtual basing?

iaflyer

None are specifically considered and there are some restrictions to the VB that would make some of cities not viable. The examples that were given in the information was LAS or MCO - both of which have enough 757/767 flying to make them possible I think.

The problem is that our network planners change the planes that serve a city day by day, so it not like it would be an easy solution.

Elliot

My money is on BOS, MCO and DFW. As much as Ed dislikes Parker, maybe ORD too.

asacimesp

We'll... that's the rub. Nobody knows how it will work.

Dirtdiver

And keeping everyone guessing gives all commuters hope that theirs will be included.

Do we get get to vote on pulling the plug, or is that one person's call?

DALMD88FO

This was a company want, not commuters, lets remember that. I'm a commuter and from one of the cities that will probably be first but I can't see any good coming out of having a virtual base. The time has to come from somewhere, meaning the established bases, so it will make it hard to decide what base to bid for seniority.

asacimesp

We don't get to vote. It's the MEC..... good news though is with elections coming up we don't even know who that will be. Hmmm

Big E 757

I commute from ORD and from a current/historical view of the departures and arrivals here, I can almost guarantee there will not be a VB here. We have a few flights of every fleet type here. 767's to Paris in the winter, a few A320's from SLC and MSP, a lot of MD88's to/from ATL, and a healthy mix of 717's and 737-700's to keep the mix entertaining. And E170's and CRJ900's from LGA and JFK. There isn't one single fillet type that does enough flying to make a VB here, but I guess they could change the aircraft serving ORD to support a VB.

With all of the historical data they are using to match the aircraft size to the routes being flown considering day of week and time of day, they'd probably lose money while trying to save money.

Just my opinion. We barely have any service at DFW anymore from what I've witnessed so I don't see that one either but MCO, BOS, and LAS do make sense.

Scoop

What about RDU?

Scoop

sailingfun

A virtual base is not going to be based principly on departure counts. It's going to be about credit and how the trips flow through a station. You can have a very high number of departures from a station but that station might create little or no credit. A station with a smaller number of departures might have a much greater impact on category overall credit.