March Bid 331 – Scheduling Notes
Hello all and good day.
Pairing optimization started on Monday, January 20th. At that time, AFA was under the impression that we were still building mixed pairings, just as we have been doing the last 11 months. On Wednesday the 22nd at around 5:30 PM we were informed by management that we were now going to co-pair with the pilots on the Q400 and do our own optimization on the E175. This means that for the month of March, we will return to flying trips that are solely Q400 and E175. However, management has said that this is a one month solution due to March being a crucial month in our operation with the beginning of Spring Break flying. The change from mixed pairing to so called “pure” flying caused an additional 270 some odd hours to MFR. All bases will have Q400 flying. The bases that will have E175 flying are PDX, GEG, and SEA(PAE). There is one MFR day trip.
Parameters for the Pairing Solution
The parameters that AFA have in the pairing solution for the E175 are:
We have the parameters set that the rest cannot be shorter than the duty days either before or after said rest. So, however long your duty hours are for the day, your rest will have to match your duty or exceed it and vice versa. However long your rest is the previous night is how long your scheduled duty is the next day (so, if you work 12 hours during the day you will get at least 12 hours of scheduled rest that night and would not be scheduled for more than 12 hours the next day). There are four scheduled flight legs/day, may be five with a DH but I did not find any trips where this happened, (of course there may be less flight legs). There is a 10:30-hour minimum rest in this month that is down from the 11:00 hour that we have had. March has 3:35 max sits in all bases, this made for some longer sits in SJC but not too many. AFA was also able to have a better overall trip distribution between the 1, 2, 3, and 4 day trips across the bases as well.
The parameters that are in the pairing solution for the Q400 are:
We have the parameters that the rest cannot be shorter than the duty days either before or after said rest. So, however long your duty hours are for the day, your rest will have to match your duty or exceed it and vice versa. However long your rest is the previous night is how long your scheduled duty is the next day (so, if you work 12 hours during the day you will get at least 12 hours of scheduled rest that night and would not be scheduled for more than 12 hours the next day). There are scheduled five max flight legs/day. There is a 10:00-hour minimum rest in this month. March has 3:33 max sits in all bases. This solution was created by the pilot union and will have us co-pairing with the pilots on the majority of trips, there will be some flights that are adjusted due to transition.
March: There are a total of 792 trips on the E175 and 645 on the Q400, 1437 between all bases.
Break down by base E175:
- GEG has 99 total trips
- MFR has 1 total trips
- PDX has 116 total trips
- SEA has 371 total trips
- PAE has 205 total trips
Total of trips/day:
| Base | 1-Day | 2-Day | 3-Day | 4-Day | 5-Day |
| GEG | 15 | 15 | 20 | 49 | |
| MFR | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | N/A |
| PDX | 22 | 34 | 37 | 23 | N/A |
| SEA | 56 | 56 | 44 | 215 | N/A |
| PAE | 122 | 47 | 15 | 21 |
Credit per base:
| GEG | 3285:32 | 16.0% |
| MFR | 8:10 | 0.0% |
| PDX | 2894:36 | 14.1% |
| SEA | 10888:56 | 52.9% |
| PAE | 3497:40 | 17.0% |
| SEA (total) | 14386:36 | 69.9% |
Credit Time/Duty:
GEG: 5:27
MFR: 4:05
PDX: 4:56
SEA: 4:57
PAE: 5:05
Break down by base Q400:
- BOI has 160 total trips
- GEG has 104 total trips
- MFR has 79 total trips
- PDX has 237 total trips
- SEA has 65 total trips
Total of trips/day:
| Base | 1-Day | 2-Day | 3-Day | 4-Day | 5-Day |
| BOI | 40 | 75 | 39 | 6 | |
| GEG | 17 | 42 | 36 | 9 | |
| MFR | 13 | 38 | 25 | 3 | N/A |
| PDX | 9 | 28 | 100 | 100 | N/A |
| SEA | 19 | 7 | 28 | 11 | N/A |
Credit per base:
| BOI | 3049:14 | 19.2% |
| GEG | 2292:20 | 14.5% |
| MFR | 1651:28 | 10.4% |
| PDX | 7316:08 | 46.1% |
| SEA | 1550:52 | 9.8% |
Credit Time/Duty:
BOI: 4:36
GEG: 4:40
MFR: 4:41
PDX: 4:46
SEA: 4:48
We will continue to advocate for improvements for our members each month during pairing development process. Our schedule makes a huge difference in determining our work-life balance as well as our overall pay. Again, if you have any comments or suggestions, please advise your base scheduling reps.
In solidarity,
Peter Oxentenko
Acting MEC Crew Scheduling Liaison
Peter Oxentenko
Council 17 Scheduling Chair (PDX/MFR)
Jolene Vallelunga-Heller and Sherry Busch
Council 17 Scheduling Reps (PDX)
Jana Gray
Council 17 Scheduling Rep (MFR)
Kenneth Cantu and Nicole Lajuett
Council 16 Scheduling Rep (SEA)
Heather Coleman
Council 16 Scheduling Rep (PAE)
Jennifer Turnbow
Council 16 Scheduling Rep (GEG)
Miria Davis
Council 16 Scheduling Rep (BOI)