That is nice. At first glance after it was explained it’s better than what we have not being tied to the res grid imo. We are tied to two numbers, opentime pot and a generic number based on domicile size. Opentime has to be less than generic. Usually not a problem but with tight staffing could be. Our deal also creates problems in flica manipulating a schedule due to the 50 hr fence. Because there’s no language that says I can’t drop below 50 just have to finish 60/70 yet flica prevents this. We can also be awarded 60 hr lines that pay guarantee. The problem becomes you can’t drop a 4 day out of the gate until your trued up on the 15 credit with the fence.

 

Gotcha. I do like that you guys have a non-reserve tied dropping system. If I understand it correctly, until 4 days prior the only limiting factor is the DDL and the Flica fence, is that right? If so it would be amazing to combo that with the ability to drop to zero, (effectively removing the Flica fence) though I think that would result in negative staffing by a zillion every day of the month. That fact could make the best parts of the two systems mutually exclusive.

The redeeming factor about our system being tied to reserve is that the company is required to adjust the required reserve buffer lower for the entire month until 75% of the days in the month are green. This is what people refer to as the red/green rule.They are required to do this prior to the start of IOT (seniority-based equivalent of your MOT, but includes the ability to drop). After the start of IOT the grid fluctuates freely and usually ends up barely green or just barely red by the time the 2 days prior drop/swap/add deadline hits.

The result is that the more senior pilots get the opportunity to drop almost at will in IOT, and junior pilots will get their chance by stalking the DOT grid if they couldn’t drop in IOT. The practical reality is that schedule manipulation is very easy. Multiple months of the first 12 that I was a lineholder I didn’t like my awarded schedule so I dropped the entire thing. I eventually flew 80 hour lines built entirely of trips I wanted that dropped into DOT throughout the month as other pilots manipulated their schedule.

TLDR; I’m very happy with the results of our system even if it’s tied to reserve coverage. It would be better if not tied, though I can’t see how the company would prevent unlimited negative staffing as a result.

 

Another nice feature of our agreement is a trade board. Sounds like you have one as well? There are basically no contractual restrictions on this. The only issue is it allows splits and when that happens the rig goes away. I.e pilot modified. Is that how your works? If u can’t get rid of something due to grid issues just stick it on the trade board and as long as it’s halfway decent it’s gone fairly quickly.

 

We do not have trip splitting. We cannot post penalty laps for pick up on the trade board. Only whole trips can be posted for trade.

 

It would be nice to regain a seniority based mot process. We had that and gave it up in pbs. The problem we had with it was the ability to split trips and when you did that rig would go away. Because it became Pilot modified. The result was a bunch of garbage no rig trips once daily opened. The good opentime went away with pbs as well as no more transition or sr vac/training drops so it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to keep it. We now have a required mix of holdback daily opentime. I believe it’s 4% of block? Is a required holdback how your mot process is stocked? These guys will get the best of both worlds. But yes in the end there always will need to be a grid number so staffing isn’t an issue.

 

yeah it’s a double edge sword. I call it the rig killing feature. It was worse when pilots did it in our mot. One of the reasons mot is gone. But like I said there’s no restrictions. If another pilots wants it crew scheduling has no input.

 

The Alaskan arbitration made a significant reference to the size of their airline. If the new F9/NK airline is going to be the #5 airline in size then our contract, based upon the latest ruling, should reflect that same fact. My post wasn't a case of using B6 or AS as a baseline. I was using the arbitration ruling as a justification as to where our contract should land relative to 1-4 and 6-7.

 

Also should be taken into account is we everything with essentially a skeleton crew OCC and spend countless hours of unpaid time fixing issues because of that lack of support we do more with less than any airline of this size

 

But this will still be an ULCC. If you want a real OCC and real support, go to a legacy airline. If you want a garage sale type airline with folding tables in the OCC, go to an ULCC.

This merger will not make Sprontier a real legacy airline. It is just a larger ULCC. Period.

 

For what it’s worth, very few of our trips would be able to be split under a requirement to touch the originating domicile. Most of our multi-day trips only touch base on the first and last legs. The base turns are almost always built as day trips. With the two airlines merging this could be an interesting wrinkle in schedule construction if base touching is much more common at F9. It would make trip splitting relevant. We don’t have the ability to split trips at all in our current language.

We do have a tradeboard - no restrictions.

I’m not up on the exact process of selecting the trips that will be withheld to stock IOT. I think there’s some union/company collaboration but I don’t know exactly how it works.