Summer set up for staffing disaster?
 

Can't help but notice a common theme on most forums right now: Tight pilot staffing.

Endeavor, Envoy, Piedmont, Expressjet, TSA.. Quite a few regionals seem tight on staffing for the winter months. It looks like summer 2020 will be a mess for the record books.

Summer flying + all-time high hiring at the majors + regional captain shortage = something is gonna give

Even the larger regionals are hurting right now. Republic is offering premium for overtime way more than they have been. Skywest is reflowing every crew they can. It’s crazy.

Yeah. if you work for one of those Regionals that allow Jr Manning, your life is going to suck this summer.

More than one way to skin that cat, reflow, etc. You'd need pretty airtight language to be safe from all "bonus" assignments. And under RLA you cannot refuse even if you're contractually protected... fly it and grieve it.

There’s still time to train before the summer, but the window is rapidly closing for early summer.

I’m fatigued just reading all this summer junior manning stuff.

link / source? Generally curious about this statement as it’s about to affect me.

You can refuse a junior man event. There are all kinds of reasons. Single parents, sick children, other family commitments etc. you just can’t blanket statement no with no reason.

If my wife works the next day and we don’t have child care except for when I am there, the company and the rla can’t say anything about me refusing it.

Heck yes you can refuse it. You'll get a missed assignment, and then you "grieve" it.

Why are you even answering your phone on a day off?

While I do here stories from guys where my first question is "why did you even answer your phone?", not all junior mans come from a phone call on a day off.

yep all my junioring has been acars message mid flight last leg of trip

Different airlines have different rules.

Some (OO for sure) cannot invol JM you on your day off.

But most or all can reflow you during a trip, and that often allows a late release on the last day. A reflow for an extra turn can turn an 18 hour overnight into a ten-hour overnight. Frustrating if you happen to live in that town.

But flat refusal will get you in trouble. Playing the childcare card may not work... their position will be that you could have a mechanical and get stuck, so whoever has your kids would need to be prepared to keep them. They have no legal, contractual, or FAR obligation to let you go home so your wife can go to work.

Fatigue is probably the best bet but that only works for about ten hours. They can send you to a hotel and THEN reflow you. Fatigue is not guarantee to go home and "take the rest of the week off".

This is worth considering for your contract if you're sticking around... it's only going to get worse.

If your contract requires personal contact (vice acars, VM, email, etc) for JM, keep that provision, it's gold. I doubt any airline would agree to restrictions like that going forward, but if you have it, keep it.

Another good one is that in-person notification must be by a company employee (vice whoever does ground-handling at the outstaton, or mainline staff).

This is not allowed at Envoy. It has to be essentially a jet bridge meeting for a line holder.

Republic has no Jr Manning, so there’s that...


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We can agree to disagree. If we follow your train of thought, I technically can’t plan anything ever on a day off because I “might” have a mechanical that keeps me away, thus perpetually being bound to my employer. I don’t think so, or at least I am willing to say no and grieve it.

This is all due to legitimate reasons of course. If I am free and the company is in a bind I will accept it and do it but there are legit reasons to say no.