Does your airline have a "Staffing Formula?"

[Captain X]

I hear about these often but aren't familiar with any carriers that have one. If your's does, would you give a summary and tell everyone what airline you are with?

 

[waterski]

Take the number of pilots required and divide by 3

 

[SkiFishFly]

Take the number of pilots required and divide by 3

and then subtract 2

 

[8vATE]

But be sure to add at least three management pilots for every 7 line pilots.
And there must be at least three levels of management. Have to insulate the number 1 guy from the worker drones.

 

[Freight Dog]

We had a staffing formula, but the Company wanted to get rid of it in bankruptcy even though it was for their own protection.

Now, they're whining about being short of pilots to the point that our VP of Flight Ops has been flying fairly regularly as an FO.

 

[QXpeon]

Staffing formula.....

That's rich.

 

[Corona]

I hear about these often but aren't familiar with any carriers that have one. If your's does, would you give a summary and tell everyone what airline you are with?

"...orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters."

I believe this is the standard industry method.

C

 

[Occam's Razor]

At NWA:

Section 24.B.2 sets the number of pilots required by dividing the Block hours in each category by the "bid divisor". The divisor is 95% of the cap. The cap may be varied each month within set limits. There are limitations on amount of "excess" hours after the math is done. (It can't exceed the number of hours in the cap for 1 pilot) The number of pilots required in each category is expressed in "whole" pilots. [insert clever comment here] Pilots with a week of vacation or mil leave would be .75 of a whole pilot. Pilots with 2 weeks of vacation are .50 of a whole pilot. You get the picture...

Section 24.B.3 sets the minimum number of Reserves in each category. It establishes the floor based on the number of Blockholders. Although the number isn't found anywhere in the contract, the "formula" floor is 12.2% of the Blockholders. In practical terms, we've never been staffed below 14.5% in any category.

Since NWA is a "commuter" airline (70% of us commute to work instead of living in MSP/DTW...those wimps!), the goal has always been to maximize the percentage of pilots who hold a regular line.

 

[chase]

I hear about these often but aren't familiar with any carriers that have one. If your's does, would you give a summary and tell everyone what airline you are with?

For SWA the formula has fluctuated between 10.5 & its current level of around 10.8 pilots per airplane. We have formulas in place for all of the positions within a station in terms of customer service agents, ramp folks, ops agents, supervisors all based on the number of flights flown from a base. A rough gauge is we have around 45 persons assigned to a new station when we open up with 10-12 flight per day. Our aircraft to employee ratio for last quarter was approximately 68 employees per airplane (32,500+/481 aircraft), that same ratio was 92 people per aircraft in 2Q02 for reference.

 

[ReverseSensing]

Pilots with a week of vacation or mil leave would be .75 of a whole pilot. Pilots with 2 weeks of vacation are .50 of a whole pilot. You get the picture...

You said "a whole pilot." Huh huh huh huh....