That can't happen with an established seniority system. You can't give new hires a base for which there is a waiting list with old hires waiting to get in.

A startup regional might be able to do it... no union, they could have local vice global seniority lists . Eventually the startup would have a union, but if they hired carefully, and most pilots were happy with the local emphasis then the union might let it persist. UPS drivers have this, you can move to another city but your seniority starts at the bottom.


This is like saying that you'd be a firefighter if you only had to work 9-5. That's just not how the industry works...

1. PAX, especially biz travellers want to be able make their hub connection and arrive at the destination in time to do something production, hence early am departures.
2. Same for the return, they want to be productive before they fly home so they need that late arrival from the hub.
3. Airlines want airplanes flying as close to 20 hours/day as possible. When an airplane sits it generates no revenue, but you have to pay for mortgage, insurance, parking space, and calendar-based Mx.

That math ain't changin' boys.

Only way to "avoid" overnights is standups... a lot of people actually like that because you have the day off, you just don't get to sleep in your own bed.

They already do that for FA's, and it could make a lot of sense at some point in the future. But *right now* there's a HUGE problem with part time pilots....

Part time FA's require the same recurrent training as full-time. But they can just throw more FA's in a recurrent class.

Part time pilots also require the same recurrent training and checking as full time... but regionals are currently SEVERELY limited on training bandwidth, sim capacity and even more so on the availability of check airmen who are all bailing for legacies. So they'd have to go out on a limb and hope that enough part-timers would stick around long enough to justify spending twice the training resources per block/hour flown.

Check out Allegiant then...

Re: overnights

“ I want to be a cop as long as I don’t have to carry a gun and enforce the law “. Basically what you saying, but for the airline industry

PSA has 1800-1900 and flows half of what you guys flow.. that’s insane

Would be interesting to see the numbers six months ago, and check again end of the year. Thanks all

488 at Commutair

C.O.D.'s (Continuous On Duty) trips went very senior back in the 90's at USAir. You typically worked 10 of them in a month and you were done. For more than 4 hours between flights you got a hotel room.
There was an old joke about "How do you get a C.O.D. F/A into the cockpit? Grease the door frame and put a Snickers bar on the floor". F/A's loved the trips because they were very short flights with no service required. They rarely even got out of their seats.

They don’t hire into bases. It’s still company wide seniority. Check out their thread to say what “day” trips are really like for the junior crowd.

Its not . I’ve done it b4 . Go to work around 1030-11 at night , fly to an outstation . Get a 3-4 hour nap and fly back into the hub by 7-730 am and go home . All day off at home .
Once again, if you live in base and are ok with min guarantee, have a spouse that makes good money or have a second source of income, it’s the way to go .

That’s a graveyard shift and it sounds ****ing terrible. Once or twice not a big deal but doing it every day? Gross.