ASA MCO base

[701EV]

The last time we had flying in MCO and TPA turns were not a problem. Flying in FLA is a breeze.

Waiting for a pilot base.

701EV

 

[Speedtape]

There want be a crew base. It will be flown out of ATL with alot of deadheading. The costs of opening a base with company paid moves, and potential closing with company paid moves make it more of a dollar risk--probably for only 3-4 months. Florida has long been known as a graveyard for airline operations.

 

[sweptback]

Delta gives us the flight numbers they want us to fly. It is up to us how to stitch it all together. 40 min turns are entirely up to crew planing-there are plenty of options better than 6 leg days with no turns greater then 40 mins. That is a screwup we can take complete credit for. This sort of garbage does not help our on-time performance and it has nothing to do with the crews or Delta-only those clowns who glue the flights together using some program which is improperly configured.

I'm sorry, but that's (somewhat) incorrect.

When Delta schedules ASA flights, they do it on a "per airplane" basis. They work out a flow on a day by day basis with each airplane that will fly that month.

ASA gets the schedules from Delta and then generates pairings, determines overnights, slots in the crews, etc. They have no say over the length of time spent on the ground as that is a Delta marketing decision. However, they do have say over what crews fly the flights and where they start and end trips.

I'm sure that ASA would love for every crew swap to be at least 1 hour on the ground to minimize delays but they don't have that choice! In short, the 40 minute turns (or less) is a Delta thing, but the 6 leg days is an ASA thing. However, if we didn't do 6 leg days then we wouldn't be productive out there.

 

[JumpersAway]

Regardless of the scheduling- you don't have to like it, but we all have to do it. As was pointed out earlier, if we can't do it, someone else will.

I've got some of it this month and it's true to the 6 leg per day mantra. It's all short legs in a "shuttle" style schedule, so we will see how it works.

It's interesting to ponder something though. If the 50 seater isn't making money, and that's all that is running the Orlando service, then it's pretty obvious that the Florida flying isn't going to make Delta any money. How long will they do this before they either:

A.) Pull the plug and shut the operation down completely

B.) put larger aircraft on the scene that are able to make money like the 70/90 seaters.

 

[Medeco]

Jumper,

You can bet its in the works, if they had the fleet available to do that they would have.

Unless the demand isnt there.

A few years ago ASA did these type of flights out of MCO and many were half full/empty.

Medeco

 

[Long Time Gone]

I don't understand why we aren't flying the -700 on the MCO - EYW - MCO routes. The -200 can't even come close to full out of there, and we're taking the -700 out full to ATL. The only reason I can think of is that the loads don't justify the use of the -700, but the costs of operating the -200 in and out of there can't balance that out.

It's that darn "big picture" thing again......

 

[KickItOut]

after flying out of MCO. For the past 2 days, I saw many ASA managers down here snooping around. The most singnificant I think was the inflight manager. I saw him with a piece of paper that said MCO BASE OPERATION PLAN. We talked to a few of them. They wouldnt give us specifics, just said they were making sure things were going smooth. Yeah right. ASA puts them up for 2 nights pays for their meals just to check it out. I say base announcement coming soon.

 

[cfi_greg]

Let's walk before we fly on this one, shall we?

If we go down there and stink it up, either because we do it wrong, or, because we are 'helped' by other folks that might not want ASA to succeed, I don't see a base. If we go there and plug the hole for the summer season, then maybe, just maybe, something might be discussed.

If this ever happens, I see the base being very senior for captains and VERY junior for FOs.

Pretty much another LA. Have fun with that

 

[crjskipper]

look and see, almost every flight for the first two days left early. must be working.

 

[79%N1]

Won't be a crew base....

Not getting 900's.......

 

[JumpersAway]

Pretty much another LA. Have fun with that

Actually, I disagree. Under the old regime- ABSOLUTELY. However, I am sure that Brad (our competant CEO) isn't going to announce a new crew base until he is sure it sticks. That's probably why it hasn't been done already. It's been stated several times that any future base announcements are going to be for the long haul. I'd have to say that Brad has made good on what he has said so far, so I'm inclined to believe what they say. Besides, it costs ASA cash to relocate crews after openning/shutting down a base. It's expensive to pay for moving costs when you shuffle crewmembers around the country.

Besides, we have an immense amount of folks that commute out of Florida to begin with. I can think of several captains I have flown with in the last year that commute out of Orlando anyway. The F/O crowd will be filled with Daytona Beach Riddle pilots. It's about an hour from there to Orlando anyway. And, as always, there are several members of the ABA (Anywhere But Atlanta) crowd that will step up to the plate.

 

[ASA_Aviator]

Actually, I disagree. Under the old regime- ABSOLUTELY. However, I am sure that Brad (our competant CEO) isn't going to announce a new crew base until he is sure it sticks. That's probably why it hasn't been done already. It's been stated several times that any future base announcements are going to be for the long haul. I'd have to say that Brad has made good on what he has said so far, so I'm inclined to believe what they say. Besides, it costs ASA cash to relocate crews after openning/shutting down a base. It's expensive to pay for moving costs when you shuffle crewmembers around the country.

Besides, we have an immense amount of folks that commute out of Florida to begin with. I can think of several captains I have flown with in the last year that commute out of Orlando anyway. The F/O crowd will be filled with Daytona Beach Riddle pilots. It's about an hour from there to Orlando anyway. And, as always, there are several members of the ABA (Anywhere But Atlanta) crowd that will step up to the plate.

CVG more likely than MCO, but that's just my opinion.

 

[JumpersAway]

CVG more likely than MCO, but that's just my opinion.

True, I'll buy into that.

 

[CFI2766]

Pretty much another LA. Have fun with that

I am actually quite concerned about this.

Whatever is the cheapest for the company is what will be policy. I'm not making a judgment about that fact. However, it would be a fair observation that it would be a difficult position to be in to be a junior FO displaced to MCO if you don't want to go.

 

[spudskier]

Won't be a crew base....

Not getting 900's.......

Yeah, GWB is now a dictator, will never leave office, Stalin is back from the dead, and oh yeah, the sky is falling and just you, ONLY you are getting laid off. Glass is almost empty.

mmmmmmmmmm no. There's a time and place for negativity, with things the way they are and your job being secure, this is probably not one of them. MCO base is up in the air although a possibility as is CVG, I'm pretty positive we'll get another base somewhere, it'll be good for our numbers and morale. 900s, who knows (AND DON'T USE A DANG ' there's no contraction on "900s" and no possession of anything) we'll get more airframes eventually, be it "900's" or 700s or 200s, but we're in a great place

so turn that frown upside down Mr. Bitter.