Satellite Basing

[hammerhead1]

Anyone hear of any airlines starting to do this to try to help out the Commuters?? I heard that one major may start soon.

 

[AlbieF15]

I was hired in 2001 by Jetblue, but went to Fedex instead. When I interviewed there in July 01, "dynamic basing" and "virtual domiciles" were being discussed and ideas were buzzing. Its 2007, and they still have only 3. I think creating new domiciles must be very difficult... Nobody else seems to be doing it (yet) either. It must be pretty tough to try to make work...

 

[SNOWBUM]

JB is getting a new crew tracking software in june that can handle the complicatiuons of virtual basing ( were told that on january). satellite basing is cheaper than opening new bases because it does not require any support personel. you could be virtual based in california, but the employee is not based there, hence lowering the cost from insurance and workers comp in some high tax states.it also allows for better crew utilization, they don't give a crap about your commute .

we will see is JB's new software can do that and if they do those virtual bases.....but I doubt it.

I wish i could go to FDX insrtead of JB.........

 

[Truckdriver]

I've heard that SWA is working on it. JetBlue needs to figure out how to run a big airline in the current hubs it has before it starts out on the virtual basing deal. This is one area of cost savings that airlines have yet to tap. With new scheduling software and computing power, I would bet that in 10-15 years all airlines will have some sort of virtual basing. It would save them lots of money in hotel costs and perdiem. I think it would be good for those who just can't deal with commuting, but virtual basing does have it's downfalls. The biggest being poor productivity and schedules even though you start and end at home. If you work at an airline that has some really small domiciles, you know what I mean.

 

[BLUE BAYOU]

There are 4 not 3 bases now: JFK, BOS, FLL, LGB. MCO will be coming soon. I think virtual basing is dead here...

 

[flatspin7]

There have been rumors on and off at CAL regarding a west coast (LAX0 or a south florida (FLL/PBI) base.

The Florida talk has died down but the LAX talk is heating up.. may just be wishful thinking by some though.

 

[AlbieF15]

There are 4 not 3 bases now: JFK, BOS, FLL, LGB. MCO will be coming soon. I think virtual basing is dead here...

I didn't realize BOS was a base now...thought it was still in the works. That's good info...

As for the FDX/JB thing...I got lucky. I love my job, and I'm VERY happy where I am. But...if I had gone blue and was 275 on the property...I'd probably be pretty happy too...althought knee deep in trying to "fix" some of the current issues verses sitting back being a cog in a huge wheel at Fedex. There's a lot of great folks at both places... However, flying F-15s on the coast where I've got 3 flight a day to MEM made this an easy choice, and security is nice.

 

[Powda5]

In CAL's contract, there is a letter of agreement about the company looking into satellite basing (dated 4/05). I guess they were supposed to say whether it was justifiable shortly after that came out. I was hired later, so I have no idea what actually transpired.......not sure if it's a completely dead issue.

 

[SNOWBUM]

There are 4 not 3 bases now: JFK, BOS, FLL, LGB. MCO will be coming soon. I think virtual basing is dead here...

were did you heard about mco?do we really need 4 bases on the east coast and 2 n FL?

 

[75M]

We had it at TWA and it was great and cheap...

Step 1) See how many pilots live in an area where the company is interested in setting up a satellite base,

Step 2) Build approximately that many lines and publish those lines in the main bid package,

Step 3) Put a v-file for those affected at the satellite base,

Step 4) Enjoy flying out of your hometown...

 

[klr1395]

I interviewed at SWA on Feb 13th. During the intros in the morning it was stated that within 18-24 months was the timeframe SWA had hoped to have electronic flightbags up and online. It was after the EFB's were up and running that they said they were looking at doing the virtual domiciling. Who know's what will really happen anyway, just a very lucky poolie here.

 

[Lampshade]

We had it at TWA and it was great and cheap...

Step 1) See how many pilots live in an area where the company is interested in setting up a satellite base,

Step 2) Build approximately that many lines and publish those lines in the main bid package,

Step 3) Put a v-file for those affected at the satellite base,

Step 4) Enjoy flying out of your hometown...

What did they do with sick calls and irreg ops? That's the deal I think.

 

[Truckdriver]

I interviewed at SWA on Feb 13th. During the intros in the morning it was stated that within 18-24 months was the timeframe SWA had hoped to have electronic flightbags up and online. It was after the EFB's were up and running that they said they were looking at doing the virtual domiciling. Who know's what will really happen anyway, just a very lucky poolie here.

I've heard the same thing. SWA will have virtual basing before JetBlue does.

 

[Truckdriver]

What did they do with sick calls and irreg ops? That's the deal I think.

You have one guy on reserve in each city with a virual domicile. At JetBlue we have RSA days which are lineholders or reserves volunteering to be on reserve on a day off. They pay us 4:12 at 150% for sitting reserve that day. The chance of being used on reserve in an outstation would be so minimal it would probably be a sweet deal to pick up RSA days while home in your outstation domicile. I'm sure they could have one person on reserve and then if they used that person they could do RSA requests. The savings in hotel costs and perdiem would be far greater than the cost of paying a couple of guys to sit reserve in each virtual domicile. IROP's on the other hand may be an issue. Not sure how to solve that problem. Right now when we have an IROP, nobody seems to get into their base anyways so it wouldn't be much different than it is now.

 

[Southbound]

I could be mistaken but didn't TWA have some type of "virtual basing" in conjunction with PBS that pilots actually liked. Anyone? I have heard it being talked about amongst my SWA friends. What a wonderful thing if properly implemented.

 

[AKAAB]

I suspect pref bidding will go away in favor of lines with satellite bases. Not sure if this is a good thing or not.

 

[75M]

What did they do with sick calls and irreg ops? That's the deal I think.

Deadhead from the masterbase if need be. Also, it was a good deal for the guys living at the satellite, so sick time was used very judiciously. Besides, without the "stress" of commuting, sick time use goes way down.

And yes TWA did have Satellites with pref bidding and it made the process even simpler than I outlined before. In the "preferences" pilots would bid for flying from the satellite. There would be enough trips planned in the bid package to build the desired number of lines at said satellite. The PBS system then automatically built and awarded lines to pilots based on their preferences. It was cool.

 

[gatorbird]

Anyone hear of any airlines starting to do this to try to help out the Commuters?? I heard that one major may start soon.

Spirit will have ACY as a satellite base starting in May. Still a lot of CAs and FAs that live in the area; problem was very few FOs bid it because we were outta there several years ago (before most of us FOs were here). Supposedly, hotel costs were in the $10K/mo range...ouch.

Company has said there is an exploratory interest in virtual bases in NYC and MCO as well...my vote's for ATL!

gator

 

[Truckdriver]

I suspect pref bidding will go away in favor of lines with satellite bases. Not sure if this is a good thing or not.

I'd take a line bid system if it meant virtual bases.

 

[Southbound]

Deadhead from the masterbase if need be. Also, it was a good deal for the guys living at the satellite, so sick time was used very judiciously. Besides, without the "stress" of commuting, sick time use goes way down.

And yes TWA did have Satellites with pref bidding and it made the process even simpler than I outlined before. In the "preferences" pilots would bid for flying from the satellite. There would be enough trips planned in the bid package to build the desired number of lines at said satellite. The PBS system then automatically built and awarded lines to pilots based on their preferences. It was cool.

Uhhhhhh, you said masterbase..... Sorry, I must have been blind and missed your original post. Thanks for the info. I hate the fact that most of the newer guys I fly with think things like quality pref bidding and satelite bases are so exotic that there's no way it can be done. IT WAS BEING DONE YEARS AGO!!!

 

[SuperFLUF]

In CAL's contract, there is a letter of agreement about the company looking into satellite basing (dated 4/05). I guess they were supposed to say whether it was justifiable shortly after that came out. I was hired later, so I have no idea what actually transpired.......not sure if it's a completely dead issue.

They study was done and a few satellite bases were identified as being viable but it was decided to wait until PBS was up and working smoothly to reanalyze the viability of satellite bases.

Given that our PureBS system will probably never work smoothly, I doubt the thought of looking at satellite basing again will come up anytime soon. The MEC is ramping up for negotiations now and so the answer will probably be; "we'll take a look at it in contract '08 negotiations."