If the company was interested in saving money, we would be changing crews in large cities (NJA places like PBI, MDW, TEB) instead of places like Charleston Executive and Quincy IL. It does no good to save money on one side of the equation if you are going to double it on the other.
Sure, it would be nice if we could change crews in large cities. It would also be nice if we could do all of our maintenance in large cities as well. Unfortunately it just doesnt work out that way all the time. That's the fractional 'on demand' model.
You control what you can, to the best of your abilities, but there are no guarantees.
Furthermore, what is the difference in originating from a "hub/domicile" and airlining to spoke/HBA OR originating in a HBA and airlining to a hub to pick up the plane?? Other than the fact that a ticket originating at a spoke is cheaper to purchase than the one from a hub.
It is well known that major airline hubs are generally more expensive to originate trips from. Many people drive 1-2 hours away from a hub to get a cheaper ticket that connects through the same hub.
Major 'FORTRESS' airline hubs (ATL, CVG, DTW, MSP, etc) where the dominant airline controls more than 70% of the traffic are more expensive.
How many of our domiciles are in fortress hubs?
The other difference is duty time.
The original intent of the Domiciles was to provide a place to gather a/c for upkeep and crew changes. Since the inception of this system, they have been used for neither.
They've been used for neither?
I guess all that work maintenance has been doing to focus aircraft on LAX and PBI for overnight mx has just been wasted....