Weasil
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2003
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This was in the NY Times today. I thought it was worth sharing with people who are looking to join the ranks of airline employees who commute.
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Extreme Commutes Grow Longer in Air Industry
By JEFF BAILEY
Published: June 11, 2006
Think your commute is bad? Try Wichita to New York, Vancouver to Dallas or Panama to Miami.
For pilots and flight attendants, those commutes aren't simply routine, they are longstanding matters of choice, supported by two of the decades-old perks that make working for an airline special: they can hitch a free ride on almost any airline with an empty seat — and they usually only have to work 15 to 18 days a month, making it easy for them to live anywhere they want.
But nowadays, they are finding it harder to get to work, because planes are so full.
"Sometimes it takes me two days," said Jason Miller, 36, who is an Airbus 320 captain for JetBlue Airways.
Mr. Miller's typical commute to get to work: up at 4 a.m. in his Wichita, Kan., home; on a 6 a.m. flight to any middle-of-the-country hub (like Dallas, Chicago or Denver); then hoping for a seat on an immediate connecting flight to Kennedy International Airport in New York, where he is based.
"It's hit or miss," Mr. Miller said. "I go through every conceivable hub known to man."
After he lands at Kennedy, he sleeps all afternoon and evening, then rises to report to work at 11 p.m. for a late flight to the West Coast. Like many pilots and flight attendants who fly out of New York, he shares a small apartment, known as a crash pad, near Kennedy Airport.
Mr. Miller signs up to pilot red-eye flights because he can typically finish a multiday trip at sunrise in New York and then begin his trek home. "It makes my commuting easier," he said. "It gives me all day to work it out."
At home, Mr. Miller red-eyes, too. "I clean the house late at night, or whatever," he said. "I'm a freak."
Not quite. The ranks of these extreme commuters appear to be growing — it is already in the tens of thousands — as financially struggling airlines trim their flight schedules. Six big airlines have reduced their combined fleets by 700 airplanes since June 30, 2001.
Most airline employees fly free in unsold seats or in jump seats in the cabin or cockpit, on their own airline or others. But with domestic flights averaging about 80 percent full — meaning that well-traveled routes at popular times are completely full — more airline workers are competing for far fewer empty seats.
Airlines are also reducing the number of airports they base their flight crews at. With fewer airports in a route network to call their home base, employees face a choice: either move near a more heavily traveled airport, or become commuters.
As a subculture, commuters feel misunderstood. "My mother comes home to the same house every night," said Bridget Drago, 27, an American Airlines flight attendant who lives in Denver and flies out of LaGuardia Airport in New York.
"I complain about money and she says, 'you need to work more.' But if I worked more, I might lose my sanity. I need time at home," Ms. Drago said in a telephone interview.
Is commuting so bad? Ms. Drago pondered that question as she had her feet up, lay stretched out in a La-Z-Boy chair (pleasantly full from a bowl of pasta) and had just hit the pause button on a DVD of "Brokeback Mountain."
This homey scene, however, was playing out behind a door at La Guardia in one of two communal sleeping rooms — each outfitted for about 30 people — maintained there by American, Ms. Drago said. The pasta was food-court fare. The DVD was playing on her laptop. She sleeps there several nights a month between trips, free. "It's all I can afford," she said. "There are hundreds of us who do this in New York."
Ms. Drago and other flight attendants and pilots point out that once work starts, they enjoy their jobs.
Certain skills help. "I can honestly sleep at any time of the day in any time zone," said Kiandra Schardt, 26, a JetBlue flight attendant with a long commute from Hawaii to New York. When she returns to her studio apartment at the beach on Oahu's north shore after her two weeks of work, she said, "It's worth it."
Wary of fatigued pilots and flight attendants, the Federal Aviation Administration limits flying hours and mandates minimum time between flights. Some union contracts enforce further limits. But what employees do during off hours — sleep, commute — is not policed.
"We can't be there making sure they go to bed at the right time," said Mark V. Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. "These people are professionals."
____________________________________________________________
Extreme Commutes Grow Longer in Air Industry
By JEFF BAILEY
Published: June 11, 2006
Think your commute is bad? Try Wichita to New York, Vancouver to Dallas or Panama to Miami.
For pilots and flight attendants, those commutes aren't simply routine, they are longstanding matters of choice, supported by two of the decades-old perks that make working for an airline special: they can hitch a free ride on almost any airline with an empty seat — and they usually only have to work 15 to 18 days a month, making it easy for them to live anywhere they want.
But nowadays, they are finding it harder to get to work, because planes are so full.
"Sometimes it takes me two days," said Jason Miller, 36, who is an Airbus 320 captain for JetBlue Airways.
Mr. Miller's typical commute to get to work: up at 4 a.m. in his Wichita, Kan., home; on a 6 a.m. flight to any middle-of-the-country hub (like Dallas, Chicago or Denver); then hoping for a seat on an immediate connecting flight to Kennedy International Airport in New York, where he is based.
"It's hit or miss," Mr. Miller said. "I go through every conceivable hub known to man."
After he lands at Kennedy, he sleeps all afternoon and evening, then rises to report to work at 11 p.m. for a late flight to the West Coast. Like many pilots and flight attendants who fly out of New York, he shares a small apartment, known as a crash pad, near Kennedy Airport.
Mr. Miller signs up to pilot red-eye flights because he can typically finish a multiday trip at sunrise in New York and then begin his trek home. "It makes my commuting easier," he said. "It gives me all day to work it out."
At home, Mr. Miller red-eyes, too. "I clean the house late at night, or whatever," he said. "I'm a freak."
Not quite. The ranks of these extreme commuters appear to be growing — it is already in the tens of thousands — as financially struggling airlines trim their flight schedules. Six big airlines have reduced their combined fleets by 700 airplanes since June 30, 2001.
Most airline employees fly free in unsold seats or in jump seats in the cabin or cockpit, on their own airline or others. But with domestic flights averaging about 80 percent full — meaning that well-traveled routes at popular times are completely full — more airline workers are competing for far fewer empty seats.
Airlines are also reducing the number of airports they base their flight crews at. With fewer airports in a route network to call their home base, employees face a choice: either move near a more heavily traveled airport, or become commuters.
As a subculture, commuters feel misunderstood. "My mother comes home to the same house every night," said Bridget Drago, 27, an American Airlines flight attendant who lives in Denver and flies out of LaGuardia Airport in New York.
"I complain about money and she says, 'you need to work more.' But if I worked more, I might lose my sanity. I need time at home," Ms. Drago said in a telephone interview.
Is commuting so bad? Ms. Drago pondered that question as she had her feet up, lay stretched out in a La-Z-Boy chair (pleasantly full from a bowl of pasta) and had just hit the pause button on a DVD of "Brokeback Mountain."
This homey scene, however, was playing out behind a door at La Guardia in one of two communal sleeping rooms — each outfitted for about 30 people — maintained there by American, Ms. Drago said. The pasta was food-court fare. The DVD was playing on her laptop. She sleeps there several nights a month between trips, free. "It's all I can afford," she said. "There are hundreds of us who do this in New York."
Ms. Drago and other flight attendants and pilots point out that once work starts, they enjoy their jobs.
Certain skills help. "I can honestly sleep at any time of the day in any time zone," said Kiandra Schardt, 26, a JetBlue flight attendant with a long commute from Hawaii to New York. When she returns to her studio apartment at the beach on Oahu's north shore after her two weeks of work, she said, "It's worth it."
Wary of fatigued pilots and flight attendants, the Federal Aviation Administration limits flying hours and mandates minimum time between flights. Some union contracts enforce further limits. But what employees do during off hours — sleep, commute — is not policed.
"We can't be there making sure they go to bed at the right time," said Mark V. Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. "These people are professionals."