Quote:
Originally Posted by Meworry?
Realistic,
Interestingly, if there is opposition to Dynamic Basing, it comes mostly from line pilots worried about "zipcode seniority," some of whom are on the QSO. The finance guys in Darien have said that Dynamic basing is cost efficient, saves on hotels and such, and would not cost anything since there would be no admin support at dynamic bases. Hopefully, automated jetway trades would be an addition to, not an alternative for, dynamic basing. The pilot group at JB is not a monolith. The pilots at the QSO all have different viewpoints based on where they sit, and the QSO was an opportunity for them to have some influence. Pilots who do not live near OAK or BOS do not care about DB. It will certainly be interesting to see who wins, but as someone said, follow the money!
I have no problem with Dynamic Basing, especially if it saves $$ and makes the life better for some of our pilots, but there has to be several conditions. First, everytime we have opened up a new base, the productivity of JFK has taken a big hit (as in FLL and LGB). If it comes to pass (and I think it will, it saves $$$) then there should be no effort to make these bases productive, IE even with JFK, FLL, LGB in productivity. Pilots at these bases get the benefit of being based at home and should give up some productivity. This should also be the core of FLL and LGB as these bases were opened for pilot quality of life and to save $$$ not to give them parity in productivity. But of course that isn't what happned. Thus the main benefit should be quality of life, not productivity.
Second, If JFK productivity goes down the toilet, then DB should end. No questions asked, just end it.
I think that most pilots will support DB if it doesn't affect their productivity. If the majority take a major hit then the support for DB will go away. Then, maybe as others have posted. we need to move all pilots back to JFK and get rid of all pilot bases until we can make larger ones vs the small pilot bases we currently have. (wouldn't that **** off the FLL senior pilots and KK)
I do hope that the automated gateway trades are available for all bases. It has the potential to "almost" create a dynamic base at any JB city with a large or small pilot group.
I do have one big fear. That the management will only implement changes that help the company, and ignore changes that help the pilots but may cost some $$$ or force crew services to work harder (read as "do their job"). Anything they they don't like they just "study" it till it dies or is just ignored. I hope not, but I am afraid it might happen.
Just my opinion....
FNG