Changes A'coming

[BoeingBoy]

I believe all of our staffing is based off of Captains....so many Captains= so many First Officers.

[post="270482"][/post]​

So far pretty similiar, taking into account differences in vacation (not as big a difference now as before), etc as you mention. The only big exception here is the IRO's - they're lumped in with the F/O's on the base bids. So on the trans-Atlantic equipment (primarily) the base bid has about twice as many F/O's as C/O's. Don't know how it works at UA for this specific case.

So do you base pilots levels at the peak or valleys of requirements? Tough question to answer. United has tried to staff based on the valleys.

[post="270482"][/post]​

What's supposed to be relatively cut & dried is in reality a mixed bag. After the 1991 mega-furlough until we recalled and hired in the late 90's, and again since the post-911 furlough, every pilot that left meant one less position in the system. So for most of the 90's and since 911, the number of "line" pilots shrinks month after month.

("since you took paycuts, we figured You WOULD WANT to fly 95 hrs/mo to make up for it"----Ummm no!) and it bit them in the butt bigtime.

[post="270482"][/post]​

Boy, does that sound familiar.....

My personal gauge of staffing (on my equipment, obviously) is POTA calls (Priority Of Trip Assignment). When they run out of reserves (supposedly system-wide for the equip/seat), they start calling line-holders from the bottom up. When one answers the phone, they're assigned a trip. With over 100 line-holders below me in CLT, I know it's bad when I get a POTA call, and I've gotten some.

Jim