ryane946

Does anyone know why it is beneficial for NetJets to have only 5 bases????


Obviously, it is beneficial to the pilots to have more bases. In a typical airline with a hub and spoike system, it makes sense to have domicilies only in the hubs plus any other major cities they operate out of. That makes sense to me.


But I don't really understand the fractional industry. Since NetJets fly to literally every reasonable sized airport in the country, and crews are normally airlined to their plane, it doesn't make sense to have a very small amount of domicilies. Since NetJet's only bases flight crews at 5 domiciles, the odds of having the plane their is very slim. Therefore the majority of the pilots need to be airlined to a plane (MORE Time and Money).

Now imagine NetJet's adds 5 more bases (10 total) in SEA, DEN, MDW, IAD, and STL (I just picked some big airports that were distributed in their geographical location). The chances of having a crews aircraft in those domiciles in twice as much. Fewer crews need to be airlined (LESS Time and Money). If they still need to be airlined, they will more than likely be closer to their aircraft (LESS Time and Money). And finally, it doubles the options of places to live for pilots (Happier pilots due to increased QOL). Hey, it could even be used as a bargaining tool for the company!

I don't understand why NetJet's and FlexJet use a very limited number of domiciles. It makes much more sense what Citation Shares and Flight Options do (have many domiciles). Does anyone have some insight as to why NetJets and FlexJet are like this???

ryane946

Does anyone have any input or a perspective as to why NetJets only has 5 bases, and whether it is good or bad??

justflyin

Depends on the lifestyle you are willing to accept. I don't live in any of those five domiciles and have already tried the commuting lifestyle at another company. For me, it's a non-starter. Others are willing to relocate or commute to make it work. Only you know what you're able to tolerate.

AVIVIII

I like the idea of working at NetJets, but I refuse to leave my nice lake house in NH for any of those crappy places. They put in a BOS or even better, an MHT base, then we can talk.

dudemize

I was reading somewhere that it was possible that they started the domicile thing to use as a negotiating tool for the next contract. It was speculated that in the next round of contract negotiations, the company could offer HBA for everyone in lieu of pay raises. I have no idea if it is true or not, but I think it has been determined that the new domicile policy doesn't really save the company any money. It doesn't really make any sense to make everyone live at a domicile if they are still going to airline you out anyway.

Pilot_135

I suppose it depends on the number of airline tickets they have to buy every quarter/year. It may be that they are very good at scheduling the crews and jets to minimise the number of airline tix. I would be interested to know if they have a contract or agreement with an airline to fly pilots at a reduced rate.
Also, if I remember correctly, it is the crew's responsibility to be at the domicile at the start of their tour. The Co. doesn't care if you live in Japan, as long as you are there when you are supposed to be. It doesn't cost them a dime, versus others like Citation Shares to fly you EVERY time to start your tour.

Just my humble opinion... from a NJA hopeful.

I guess that's another point - new hires probably want to fly with them so badly that they sacrafice Doms for the bigger picture. I know I would. It's not like they have a shortage of applicants...

jtf560

They are not good at scheduling crews and jets to minimize airlining. I live in CMH and airline about 90 percent of the time. I have been airlined 3 times to 3 different cities to meet up with an airplane at the begining of a tour. It took 3 days and including hotels, taxi, and airline tix they spent about $3000 to get me there. 3 times I've found company ferry flights to get me to my destination faster (and for free) when the company had already booked airline tix for me. I had to call them to get the ferry instead- they don't even look in their own computer system to utilize the ferry flights. I have to believe that it is mostly about the next negotiations, but I guess they could actually believe it might save them a buck or two. I sure haven't seen any way for that though.

AIRrAMBO

I imagine its because they cut down or will cut down considerably on the number of tickets purchased.

Instead of flyin from Austin to DFW then taxi to DAL then DAL to wherever you just get DAL to wherever.

Maybe it saves em 100 bucks but...100 bucks at each end of the trip times 2600 or so pilots adds up.

I'm hoping itlll work out for me since I wanna move back to DFW.

hatetobreakit2u

huh?, i think he was reffering to how come from a company standpoint that this idea isnt beneficial, not a commuting pilot standpoint.


i dont see how adding more bases wouldnt be cost effective in a company standpoint, eventually too many bases would turn scheduling into a nightmare and just wouldnt be logistical, like having LGA and JFK just wouldnt make sense. But i dont see why filling in the holes here and there with bases would hurt the company because in most cases your airlining the new crew to the plane so that would just make it faster.

mooneymite

Do not try to make sense of the NetJets domicile policy. Someone sold management on the idea and no one is going to back down, no matter how stupid it proves to be.

I'm a post-contract guy based in PBI. Ticket prices right now are ridiculously expensive in season to/from PBI and availability is tight. In the last year, I've had exactly three tours start from PBI and zero tours end there. I commercial in/out or PBI almost every tour.

Does this make sense? Not when you consider that I live in ATL where I am usually one commercial flight from anywhere. Out of PBI, I always have to fly to either ATL, CLT, or EWR to get where I'm going. I end up getting myself from ATL to PBI only to have NJ's pay to get me from PBI back through ATL on Delta. DUMB!

Is the company going to open more bases at airline hubs? According to the latest missive I got from the head-shed: "No, not at this time."

Sometimes I think NJ's management thinks making money is proof that they are doing the right thing.

If you hire on with NetJets, know that you will be tied to one of the "Fab 5" domiciles. Management is not commuter friendly or sympathetic. They are comitted to making the domiles work, no matter how much it costs them.