IAD Base
 

Friend of mine was just hired, she already lives in the DC area and she would clearly like to bid IAD flying. Some questions:

1. How senior is IAD overall?
2. Which fleet types are available and which fleets are senior and not senior out of IAD?
3. What are the upsides and downsides of being IAD based?
4. Any recommendations on what to bid? She is open to all types of flying (i.e., short haul and long haul).

Thanks for your insights.

1. it’s not

2. all of them

3. upside, it’s coastal, so pretty junior. Downside, have to cover 3 airports. Not a huge deal if you live there I guess.

4. Same as anywhere else. If you want a line sooner, bud NB. Reserve for long time, WB. I’d bid 737 because it’s like 95% IAD so you aren’t going to BWI and Reagan as much. Or maybe she lives near BWI? So bid airbus ? Or bid whatever she’s interested in flying.

I just transferred to IAD from ORD in March on the 756. My seniority (07/2019 hire) is much better than ORD and slightly better than EWR. Our flying on the 756 is obviously not EWR flying but better than the other 756 bases, in my opinion.

1. depends on what category

2. All fleets are in DC. The narrowbodies (320/737/756) are the most junior as in usually available to new hires.

3. DC is the stepchild to EWR, much like LAX is to SFO so we don’t get the priority for future flying except in rare circumstances (Africa and AMM for example) We have room to grow however since except for the 5pm bank, we are not gate constrained, so who knows what the future will bring.

As noted if on the narrowbodies, you have to cover IAD/DCA/BWI but depending where one lives, it’s not so bad in terms of distance to each. And regardless of fleet, the majority of flying is done out of IAD since that is the hub.

4. Each has it pluses and minuses so can’t really give an answer to what is best as it’s pilot specific.

Airbus: A more comfortable cockpit, but on a smaller fleet so maybe not getting seniority as fast as one might on the 737. Pilots still on probation are getting lines. More short haul flying with some transcons/4-5 hour legs mixed in.

737: growth fleet so more variety of trips (but also more redeyes) and will be a lineholder quicker. But has the known 737 issues.

756: on reserve (the global kind) longer but the trips are generally 1 or two legs a day domestically. Potentially get to fly to Europe, but it might be unaugmented.

787/777. A very slim chance of getting it as a new hire. Will be on reserve for years.

so to each their own

Just to clarify:

The Washington base covers all three airports in the DMV area: DCA, BWI and IAD. The 737 trip mix for DCA is roughly 70-75% IAD flying with the remaining 25-30% split almost evenly between BWI and DCA flying. Those numbers do fluctuate seasonally, but the majority of the flying is definitely out of IAD. Most of the time it is easy to avoid BWI during bidding as there is a group of pilots living over in the Maryland area who bid for those trips. It may be a bit harder to avoid it going out to BWI while on reserve, but living in base makes it much easier. BWI trips usually start very early and finish pretty late while DCA trips have a better variety of early morning or mid-afternoon report times and finish afternoon to late night.

Comfort/space in the flight deck, especially in comparison to the Airbus and 756

See exhibit 1

the 737 isn’t as bad as people make it sound. It’s an oddly capable plane, with like 7 decades of tech all merged into one machine. Yeah, it has its issues, but it’s…..fine I guess? For seniority, good trips, and growth, it’s hard to beat. Plus, everything after wil just be easier and nicer.

1. Mid level seniority. It’s not as stagnant/senior as IAH, CLE, ORD. On the bottom end of our seniority list, it’s slightly more senior than SFO or EWR. SFO and EWR nearly always have new hire slots. With all the 737 growth, particularly at IAD, I suspect that we will see 737 new hire options for just about every new hire class for the next couple years.

2. Little bit of everything in DC. Historically the 777 and 787 went fairly senior. COVID decimated DC widebody flying, a lot of those pilots took the early retirement option, and it created a temporary void. For the past 9 months or so we have been in a rapid widebody regrowth period with unfilled widebody FO vacancies. I don’t suspect that will continue indefinitely. DC will never be a huge widebody base, so as the widebody flying returns I think that the bottom of the widebody fleets will once again stagnate. For reference as a 2008 hire - in 2013 I would have been about 95% on the 777. In 2019 I would have been about 88% on the 777. The past 18 months have been a huge anomaly in terms of rapid movement and I suspect things will slowly return towards their historic stagnant norms.

3. Upside: we have a great chief pilot, medium sized base (everyone seems to know each other), and a little bit of every type of flying. Lots of options here.

Downside: it’s DC, which means it’s stupid expensive, bad traffic, and narrowbodies have to cover 3 bases.

4. Recommendation: 737 FO. Learn the ropes, enjoy rapid seniority improvements.


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naw dawg, unfilled vacancies on the 787 and 777. Will be easy to get in class or on first vacancy bid. Will likely be on reserve a while but blanket statements on the future have no value in this environment.

is this a UAL bird? Egg timer is for cross-feeding I suppose?

Per the September staffing report:

8 new hires have, or will have the DCA 777 as their initial bid.

1 new hire got DCA 787 as their initial bid.

With zero unfilleds on the current snapshots on the 777/787 in DCA, no new hire is going to get WB FO in DCA as their initial assignment. And the current snapshots awards range from 2+ years seniority to over 25 years to hold (777 FO). So yeah im pretty safe in saying its going to be a while on reserve if a new hire gets it, just based on actual numbers.

thats because there’s no vacancies on this one, those are backfills.

it wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t need to see a chiropractor after every trip

true,

but based on the company’s projection as published in the latest CRU, there will be zero 787 FO vacancies and only 10 777 FO vacancies to fill summer 2023 flying needs. So not much opportunity for unfilled Wb bids for a new hire to get any time soon.