I'll corroborate. Classes go back up in August. We're playing catchup on OE during the slowdown. We won't see a lot of instructors back in the sims in August since those classes won't hit Sims until almost September.

 

Really? You guys know we're taking about Spirit? The guys running the place are there by default. They have no clue what staffing levels are today or will be in 6 months. I'm sure they've screwed the pooch and have no clue what's going on. Have you guys spent anytime at the "Spirit Airlines strip mall", I mean office complex. It's a clown show. Some of you guys give them way to much credit. Our business model is cheap seat and no staffing. Notice how no one answers a phone? No one cares!!!

 

I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but reducing pilot staffing is so easy a caveman can do it. And the more money they save on staffing, the more they can stuff in their pockets with bonuses on their exit from this merry-go-round of upper level management.

 

The biggie of course is elimination of transition conflicts, which in turn reduces the need for the high number of reserves to cover all the dropped trips at the beginning and end of the month. Another would be trip touching on vacation weeks. You'll get your bid weeks off, but you'll block more now in those months to make up for it. Vacation will get bookended with trips, so the days of getting 2 weeks off using 18 hours of vacation are gone when PBS is implemented. Training drops? Probably won't happen. You'll just be taken down to min days off in training months and flying will be built around your sim or groundschool. In general, soft time will be greatly reduced, so you make more per hour, but you'll likely have more block hours on your schedule than under the old contract. Crew utilization goes up, required staffing goes down. I just hope it doesn't get to the point that it's tough to drop a 4-day here and there.

 

Sounds great! I can’t friggin wait. Lowest compensation in the industry and crappy work rules to boot. High five to the 70%.

 

Arnt all those things associated with transition drops which we lost anyway? Because now with transition drops the company can add another trip that works anyway for you. I do think the grid will stay way green however because no one will be able to drop reserve. I actually think it might start going even more senior.

 

Correct, loss of transition was not a direct result of PBS, but it was a package deal, and PBS won't build schedules with conflicts. Did we have to agree to give up transition until PBS was implemented? I just think they'll need less RSVs in general to cover the flying now that RSV coverage is spread out evenly across the month because the need is more predictable. PBS will still kill the vacation and training conflicts, which will reduce the staffing ratio enough to be noticeable. We are still taking deliveries and hiring, so I'm not talking about a furlough or anything, just a reduced ratio of crews to A/C going forward. If we were going to agree to disallow RSV drops, I also think it would've been reasonable to have language that prevented the company from checkerboarding the red/green grid. I would be surprised if RSV goes senior under these rules. I think you'll see RSVs block more than in the past, credit less, and have min days off. I don't think the lack of scheduling flexibility will be very desirable.

 

Ah I see now. That makes more sense to my simple head now lol. Thanks.

 

This may be aside your point, and I assume you were framing a hypothetical here so I will cut you some slack, but your example here kind of distorts the truth. Wiping out 2 weeks with only 18 hours of vacation time would be possible but atypical. 18 hours would be typically be a weak 4 day or a fair 3 day pairing, so 2 weeks would probably come at a cost of 30 to 40 hours from your sick bank.

 

...in other words, it was never free