Misery loves company. Ben's argument is reduction through attrition. Not this lashing the IAH pilots are about to get. How about EWR and CLE? Is it their turn next? I'm above 50% so I'll be just fine, but I do feel bad for all the junior people in IAH. It could get real ugly for them. Keep in mind that many of these pilots were hired by LUAL. One more kick in the balls for them I guess.

 

Not quite. Herve wants to send the flying to bases where other pilots demand it. Pilots who are not currently there. Doesn't pass smell test.

 

The new management probably had to plan for all contingencies, which included more delays to the SLI, hence they had to keep training on the CAL side. I don't blame them for those decisions. But I do blame them for paying a bunch of pilots on both legacy sides to not fly for the last 1.7 years. Instead of hiring as much as they did, they should have done displacements first. This is all hindsight. And more important, all water under the bridge.

The bottom line is we are not just overstaffed with pilots, but "wrong" staffed. We have the wrong pilots in the wrong places, and on the lUAL side that has been going on for 4 years.

Between that and the F/A's, our operational staffing is catastrophically bad. All this is being hidden by record revenue, but they need to sort it out or it will get really ugly, really fast when the economy takes a turn south again.

 

What are you basing 'overstaffed' on? IAH 737?

Between mainline fleet growth of 21 aircraft in 2015 and retirements, any perceived shortage of pilots will be rapidly resolved. IAH 737 is overstaffed and I wouldn't expect either block hour growth and/or a lot of retirements there so there will likely be some displacements.

 

Like the "lashing" Den, Sea, and Ord have already experienced? It's business.

 

So the correct answer is to TDY to bases the flying doesn't exist either?

The pilots arn't currently there because the flying isn't there. The flying isn't there because it's being forced through houston.

I want to be based in DEN the last thing I need to see is 50 DEN TDYs a month until IAH has a enough retirements and people bidding off. TDY Is supposed to be TEMPORARY not permanent.

 

Don't forget LAX

 

As per manpower planning, IAH and DEN are both overstaffed. Further reductions in 757 should make other 76t bases overstaffed as well. A bunch of new hires were trained on both 76 fleets, simply because there was no 737 training available. Again, per company announcements in the last year or so.

 

I would disagree that the 756 didn't/doesn't need the pilots. Take a look at EWRs staffing for the next few days. For the last 3 weeks we have been 2:30 hrs away from a complete nuclear meltdown to our INTL flying. we're senior manning a dozen trips a day and flying CAs in the IRO seat.

The BAT has made staffing the fleet difficult to judge but I assure you the fleet is understaffed where the new hires have been put.

 

I'll get concerned the day that someone says that EWR is properly staffed/overstaffed. Until then, it's just widgets (pilots/FAs/flights) being moved around on the board by the suits in Willis tower. Our job is to move metal from point A to point B, not solve short term manning shortages/overages that are self-induced.

As far as DEN being overstaffed, which is due to fleet changes/drawdowns, my only comment is 'I'm shocked, shocked that there's gambling going on in here'. ... if you didn't catch the reference, I've provided a youtube link. Caution: it's an old black and white movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME
If you STILL don't understand the meaning, watch the movie. It's a classic. Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart. 'Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world ...' So many quotable quotes in that flick.