Home Basing - What If?
 

I know a few charter and smaller 135 outfits offer home basing already. I personally commute 2 and sometimes 3 legs from the Midwest to a PDT base, and am perfectly happy in doing so. The questions I have are, as the amount of available pilots (due to pay or otherwise) becomes more scarce...

What if a regional airline were to offer a home-basing option?

Would it attract anyone additionally or cause lateral movement to said airline?

Would it offset pay scale comparisons to know you could be based virtually anywhere and always have a way to/from your trips or reserve periods?

Discuss...

You will get a lot of naysayers from the "Thats the way it is" group.

I propose that airlines be required to place a pilot in the domicile that is easiest for them to get to. IE Pilot lives in Virgnia, they would be forced to place them in a DC base as opposed to a Dallas base. Yes that might cause displacements but it would (after a shift in mindset) drastically increase QOL and reduce commuters.

If I were just getting into the game, I'd seriously consider any airline with a home basing option. And if a (non-cargo) major ever offered it, they'd probably become my #1 choice. That said, it wouldn't be worth a lateral move.

It's a great idea on paper and probably works for small 135 companies when they have Just maybe handfuls of pilots, but say a company for example Skywest to offer this who has a few thousand pilots, with probably a pretty large share that commute to offer each and everyone of them a chance to be home based maybe far stretched. It's an interesting concept but the issue, what if say Skywest doesn't fly to that persons home town, would they have to start service there? What if only one person commutes from said location, or how would trips start? That's a lot of movement of reserves from hubs to out stations and deadheads for them back just so joe doe can be based at home in Fargo.

To clarify, what if you were scheduled a ride to/from domicile from your home airport or closest that the parent airline or one of their partners serves. For example, at PDT, when you go for training events, they will bring you to/from CLT, DFW, etc from your home airport, instead of your domicile.

I feel that this should be priority number 2 right behind pay in contract negotiations. Times have changed and more and more of the general public are traveling and getting a seat can be an act of god at times. Then, you always can't rely on the jumpseat due to weight and balance or ego trips. Commuting sucks no matter how you look at it, but if I had a guaranteed seat to and from work, that would definetely ease the sting. I would even agree to living within an hours drive of an airport that my airline or their affiliates serve if I knew I was always going to get on. That would most certainly be worth a move.

so a guaranteed seat to commute? count me in

There's way too many commuters for this to be feasible

Exactly. I'm running some numbers on what the commuter hotels are costing a company vs. guaranteed commutes. If say 450 pilots utilized 4 provided hotel rooms per month at an average of $50 cost per night you are looking at $1.1 million per year. Then factor in the lost productivity and schedule impacts of having a commuter clause for a possible 2700 days of work lost at 6 events allowed per year. It seems that if (dare I say) some efficiency could be worked out with a guaranteed ride program, it shouldn't cost much more. It could actually be a benefit to the company and could have the added effect of attracting pilots to that company. Thoughts?

I agree. My commute over time has become more and more difficult, but I'm not about to move to base for this job. No way. First, no cost of living adjustment and my retirement would suffer badly for the move due to sharply increased housing costs at my base. Saving for retirement is my #1 priority. Second I like where I live, and have friends and family here, don't like the city of my base, and lastly my wife has a fantastic job here. The single most stressful aspect of this career, to me, is the commute. I feel like I am rolling the dice with my job each and every week. A positive space seat would be like a dream come true.

The airline need commuters as much as we need the ability to commute. Look at the difficulty they have keeping seats filled now. Can you imagine if they did away with commuting? No one would take this job if you HAD to live in LA, or NYC, or SFO. They'd have to triple pay rates at least. Yet, commuting is increasingly difficult as seats are full all the time now, and if you don't make the commute to work despite your best efforts, prepare to face the wrath even if you have a 'commuter clause'.