Is it 3-4 day trips for both aircraft?

Do pilots in the bus get more hours per month since the flights are longer, or does it even out sine the 190 flys more legs?

 

Here's a rough idea of trip lengths by fleet breakdown:

320:
34% 1-day
25% 2-day
20% 3-day
17% 4-day
4% 5-day

190:
36% 1-day
19% 2-day
18% 3-day
26% 4-day

I've only flown the 320, but I see the seniority progression as a 320 FO vs a 190 FO. Purely QOL related, I would say bidding 50% on the 190 would produce better results than being 80-90% on the 320. To each his own though.

 

I appreciate the responses, how about average number of days off for each airframe?

 

Jan 2014 numbers show both fleets average around 5.6hrs/day credit time, so I would assume it is close to equal in terms of days off.

I don't have any numbers on specific days off per pilot on avg, maybe someone else can chime in.

 

Flyby, thanks for all the answers you provide. So the way I look at that is 12.5 days a month working average? Does that sound correct or way off?

 

Does the 190 provide a more commutable schedule than the 320?

 

I edited my previous post, see below. It is very equal which has the most commutable trips (12.5% of 320 trips and 13% of 190 trips).

In the end you'll be happy with whatever airplane you get. All fleets and bases are awesome and excellent opportunities for all types of bidding preferences.

If you live in a particular base then bid for that, anything else is splitting hairs.

 

Roughly how often are pilots called while on 2-hour reserve? Same for both airframes? I'm assuming more in the summer. Are the calls for multi-day trips?

 

It depends on a few things:

We have a system where a reserve pilot can bid for open trips during his/her reserve days. This bidding closes at 7am the day prior and awards come out at 12noon the day prior. Once assigned the trip it is yours, and there would be no "call out" period. Trips are assigned through this method based on company seniority (most senior pilot bidding for the trip gets it).

As far as actually sitting on the couch and receiving a call from scheduling depends on the time of year and probably the airframe. I am on the 320 and get called a lot during the summer months. At the peak times I get called at least once per week and am actually flying during most of my reserve days. 2 and 3 day trips are most common for A320 reserve.

I would say June-August are the busiest months, with the additional short busy periods surrounding other big events like Thanksgiving/Christmas/school vacation weeks/etc. Sept-Oct are the slowest months and you can get lucky and spend a 4-5 day reserve block without flying at all.

The reserve system is set up by how many days you are available and how long the trip is. If you are on for a 4-day block of RSV and a 2-day trip opens up they will first look for any legal 2-day RSV pilots, then 3-day pilots, then they will look to assign it to you. If there are multiple 4-day RSV pilots then they assign it to the one with the lowest credit hours for the month so far.

Hope this helps

 

Yeah summers are definitely busier. As for the other months, it would be anybody's wild guess. It changes based on staffing at that exact time. I had months I barely flew while others broke guarantee.

Edit: ^^Flyby beat me to it. With a much better answer too.