121 Outsourced Dispather

[A330Driver]

Ok, you are not going to believe this. My 121 company is seriously considering outsourcing all dispatching....Can they do this?

I have looked all over, but cannot find a regulatory reference that prohibits them from doing this.

Could anyone please provide any insight (preferably regulatory e.g. FAR, Legal interpratations, etc) so that I can through this on my DO's desk and laugh.


Fraternally

 

[homerjdispatch]

what company?

 

[A330Driver]

prefer not to say

 

[RVSM]

Only if the Feds sign off on it.
Your OPSPECs defines who what where and how.
Keep us posted. I really want to know how this turns out.
I also really want to know what carrier but I can wait

 

[SKC]

Our airline thought briefly about that in the late 90s, but decided against it due to financial reasons (amazingly).

 

[homerjdispatch]

Spirit?

 

[homerjdispatch]

oops posted twice

 

[405]

Ok, you are not going to believe this. My 121 company is seriously considering outsourcing all dispatching.

Yeah, I do believe it. I say let 'em do it. All of these airline senior management "teams" would rather save a few bucks than run a safe airline. I hope it bites them in the ass.

 

[clr4theapch]

Private dispatch firms

Only if the Feds sign off on it.
Your OPSPECs defines who what where and how.
Keep us posted. I really want to know how this turns out.
I also really want to know what carrier but I can wait

This is only part of the problem...but it is not impossible to overcome if an airline wants to through enough money at it, which is the problem..

I know about 5 years ago, 4 out of work dispatchers put together there own SOC complete with NavTec, Flt. Explorer, WSI and Jeppesen for rnwy analysis..set up a server to send release and maintain records...they had some pretty big backing, and were going after High end Corporate customer with hopes to one day performing contract 121 work...

The story goes, they made their pitch to the FAA to perform 135 and 121 flight planning, and flight following, according to them the FAA was impressed with the capabilities of the operation and the premis looked promising, however the real problem came when the "whos responsible" questions started being asked, and how it would be enforced in the event of an incident or accident.... A contract between the two was not considered enough of an guarantee for the FAA's liking, and complicated things.

So the FAA came back as being unprepared to address out sourced dispatch at that time, stating that many regulations would have to be added or amended to address operational control between an 121 operation and it's employee pilot in command, not to mention records maintenance and FAA compliance with training requirements of dispatchers and how they would be listed in an OPS SPEC as a non-employee of the certifcated operation.

In the end, for the FAA to approve a private firm to dispatch for an 121 operation many legal connections must be addressed in the FAR's then each airline would have to fork over the cost of amending their ops Spec outlining how this contract work would satisfy the new REGS and maintain the same level of safety and record keeping.. Very expensive and lengthy process.

I have no heard anything on this subject since those days...but certainly alot has changed since those days and management is always looking for better and cheaper ways to do business, possibly they have been working with the FAA on such details for awhile, who knows but them.... it will be interesting to see where this one goes for sure.

 

[Ohh Porterhouse]

prefer not to say

Come on you can tell us.