Southwest to ‘trim headcount’ after growth in costs

[Lear70]

Hey guys, quick question. Can't find anywhere to look at the individual bases. Can someone tell me if a 91000 number can hold a line in ANY of the bases right now and, if so, which bases and how far from the bottom?

Topic of discussion from some of our guys and I just didn't know the answer.

Thanks,

 

[j41driver]

Did the SWAPA contract qualify for a raise this year?

Nope.

 

[redflyer65]

Hey guys, quick question. Can't find anywhere to look at the individual bases. Can someone tell me if a 91000 number can hold a line in ANY of the bases right now and, if so, which bases and how far from the bottom?

Topic of discussion from some of our guys and I just didn't know the answer.

Thanks,

Yes. Easily hold a line in LAS, OAK, and PHX. How far from the bottom would take some time to calculate (get back to you later). We have 'Blank Lines' below the regular line and those can be good too. It's a secondary bid that comes out later. And that's the downside, they come out around the 20th.

DEN went pretty senior in the right seat, so I don't think so. Reserve in HOU, MDW, and MCO.

If ATL opens first or second quarter next year it would take alot of pressure off everything. That's just my opinion, of course.

 

[Lear70]

Thanks, Red. That's kind of what I figured. A few people thought DEN or MDW at that seniority (people right around my number) but I wasn't sure. Same for BWI?

I'm still hearing early 2nd quarter 2014 for the base opening in ATL, announcement sometime late 2nd or early 3rd quarter next year. All subject to change of course, but no real reason to add an ATL base until SWA takes over enough traffic in 737 markets that will overnight enough aircraft in ATL to make it worth having a base.

While we will be pulling down 717's in 2013, those destinations will be added on the SWA side with 737 classics (mostly short-haul routes < 2 hrs) while the new deliveries are freed up for higher-yield, higher-load-factor markets. It's moving the bulk of the last of our 737 flying and 717 flying that should have been on a 737 out of ATL that will necessitate an ATL base. That won't really start happening until 2014.

At least, that's the last I heard, subject to change of course. I'm betting an ATL base would go senior in the right seat. We have roughly 400 or so pilots (half of which are our CA's) that live in or close to ATL, not including your people who want to be there. While it would likely take the pressure off the other bases for the pre-SWA folk who were senior in those bases before our CA's started coming in, I'm not seeing a real improvement in base bidding out of it for people near my seniority.

Wondering how much of your original trips you can give away at that seniority and pick up out of other bases (MCO, MDW, BWI) and how reliably you can do so? I was figuring on staying until we turned the lights out, mainly because of where I figured I'd be falling in the bid. The pay would be awfully nice for the last 18 months of the draw-down, but not at the expense of having to work weekends and holidays AND a 4-5 hour commute.

Thanks again for the info.

 

[Ualexpress]

There are more than 400 AirTran pilots that live in and close to Atlanta. If you include all 1700 + pre merger AirTran pilots, I bet that number is close to 800.

 

[scoreboardII]

91,xxx in:

BWI/MCO 20 from bottom of 400

LAS/OAK 100 from bottom of 350

PHX would be about 60 from bottom of 400

DAL 4 from bottom of 300

At any of those bid numbers, you'll most likely still be weekend flying, unable to give much away, and DAL will be as a reserve. Maybe even MCO/BWI.

 

[redflyer65]

Thanks, Red. That's kind of what I figured. A few people thought DEN or MDW at that seniority (people right around my number) but I wasn't sure. Same for BWI?

I'm still hearing early 2nd quarter 2014 for the base opening in ATL, announcement sometime late 2nd or early 3rd quarter next year. All subject to change of course, but no real reason to add an ATL base until SWA takes over enough traffic in 737 markets that will overnight enough aircraft in ATL to make it worth having a base.

While we will be pulling down 717's in 2013, those destinations will be added on the SWA side with 737 classics (mostly short-haul routes < 2 hrs) while the new deliveries are freed up for higher-yield, higher-load-factor markets. It's moving the bulk of the last of our 737 flying and 717 flying that should have been on a 737 out of ATL that will necessitate an ATL base. That won't really start happening until 2014.

At least, that's the last I heard, subject to change of course. I'm betting an ATL base would go senior in the right seat. We have roughly 400 or so pilots (half of which are our CA's) that live in or close to ATL, not including your people who want to be there. While it would likely take the pressure off the other bases for the pre-SWA folk who were senior in those bases before our CA's started coming in, I'm not seeing a real improvement in base bidding out of it for people near my seniority.

Wondering how much of your original trips you can give away at that seniority and pick up out of other bases (MCO, MDW, BWI) and how reliably you can do so? I was figuring on staying until we turned the lights out, mainly because of where I figured I'd be falling in the bid. The pay would be awfully nice for the last 18 months of the draw-down, but not at the expense of having to work weekends and holidays AND a 4-5 hour commute.

Thanks again for the info.

Scoreboard did the leg work before I could get to it.

Speaking of giving away, if you get a weekend line then you might be stuck with it unless you are a wizard with ELITT (trading with the company open time). This airline is very senior with everyone wanting Mon-Wed, Tues-Thurs, Wed-Fri. lines. It's just that way across the board in pretty much every base.

I'll never forget, I ran across a fairly senior FO once in OAK when I was doing weekends and trying to drop everything. I mentioned that if he ever wanted any of my flying that it was ALL in giveaway. He asked what I had, and I said Sat-Mon. He looked at me like I had three heads, then told me he doesn't do anything other than Tues-Thurs. I quickly got the message.

You feel like you've hit the gold mine when you start getting Sun-Tues trips, or Thur-Sat trips. A half a weekend off is big.

You can aways try and piece out (cut up) west coast trips and try to pick up in the East. If you get rid of something, you are free to pick up from any pilot in any base (as long as they are giving it away), more so in the summer of course. Just saw a union chart of the winter/summer flex. It was huge. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 650 pilot swing if you were counting just bodies vs. flying.

 

[Lear70]

Thanks guys, that's what I figured.

A lot of our people are looking at Jamie's seniority calculator and thinking they are going to be more senior than they really are, which is what prompted the discussion when I told some of them that I was going to wait until all 700+ of our F/O's who are junior to me get over there to "plug the hole" in other bases while some attrition moves some of your senior F/O's up to the CA seat.

They didn't understand why the seniority calculator isn't correct; it didn't take into account all our people who bid 717 CA becoming F/O's instead which changes their seniority pretty dramatically when you insert 550 or so CA's at the top of the F/O list by the time the transition finishes.

I still wonder if that's going to be spread evenly amongst the bases or if it will create more movement in some than others... For instance, if most of your senior F/O's are in one or two bases and that's where most of the upgrades are coming from, then that base changes more dramatically than others as upgrades occur. Will they therefore place more of our transitioning people in those bases when they first come over, to minimize base displacements later on, or would it matter? Don't know enough about how the vacancy process as upgrades happens affects the way the list moves with your bidding system...

Thanks again, guys.

 

[texman]

Lear are you bidding around a 91xxx number?

 

[Lear70]

Yeah, 9100x. Most of us on the 737 in MCO are in that range (except the bottom 10 or so people on reserve), from 908xx to 911xx.

Pre-merger list we're in the top 5-20% F/O's at AAI. It's a senior base and a/c. I'm currently bidding #9 in MCO since Linden came back and one of our peeps on Med leave returned. Will be #1 in MCO after the Jan transition bid in MCO (assuming no one else defers) and will be #17 in ATL in Sep when I defer and pass junior and go to ATL.