Guess you had to be there - that’s not at all how he came across about it.

in my opinion it will be whatever airport is cheaper to operate out of. covered hangar space would likely be sought after also, due to the winters.

we also know Barry (smartly...) does not re-invent the wheel. If a few airlines had hubs or heavy presence there, and stream of passengers, it is attractive as a base. McDonalds across the street from Burger King 101 stuff. Every pilot base so far (now closed ORD in the list) has been a Big-3 hub, Big-3 crew base, or Big-3 major presence.

CLE has more of that than CVG but who knows what the crystal ball says.

You can have your doubts, but DS is the one person that I actually somewhat respect. His job is to figure all of this out and I personally really enjoy learning more about the ops side of the airline. In RGS 8 months ago he said ORD/MDW was something they were continuing to look at, but it would be at least a year and a half or 2 years before they made any decisions.

What is the general consensus on dual basing for pilots? ORD/MDW or FLL/MIA?

Personally I’m not really all about it but I didn’t get shoved out of my home base…yet.

couple of years ago some of the union guys I spoke to said the company was probably going to be very interested in it. PHL and TTN is what they specifically referenced.

but reading the emails/video from the union and Brad, I was surprised it wasn’t mentioned.

We previously had a dual base (chicago)

I don't believe there's anything preventing them from doing it again now

I'm no expert, but I feel there's more to that story. With all the flying out of TTN and FLL we do. Also, the FAs already have codomiciles there.

I mean would you expect Barry and Indigo to not squeeze every ounce that they could? If they could've they would've, I feel.

money. they can open a base in San Francisco but it will cost too much money or would not make sense from the money standpoint.

money prevents them.

ORD was too expensive, in all likelihood, and they got a favorable reception by MDW airport

the greenest airline is all about the money. Their money.

and that, you can, uh, take to the bank

That doesn’t explain why you would close the pilot base vs move it down the street the same time as the FA base was moved.

Now if the need to staff ATL immediately was a concern to fill slots and justify the new base that’s a plausible story. But nothing of the sort was mentioned at the time. It came at the same time as the second Covid wave and section 19s so the rumor and possible truth of BB getting angry makes more sense in this case.

yeah, who knows. all good points