Scheduling Notes – October, Bid 326
October Bid 326 – Scheduling Notes
We will start with the disappointing news. The pairing solution for October was not our first choice. Our preferred solution had a maximum of four working legs. If a fifth leg was included, it had to be a DH. This solution was $16,000 more than the solution the company selected. Their preferred solution increased the maximum to five working legs. All other parameters were the same.
The good news, we were successful in eliminating the YVR AC swaps in the month of October. And our new Crew Planning Liaison, Cyndy Mathison, is attending Jeppesen training this week and will be fully operational for our November pairing development. It’s a real process to learn how the system works, and we have only just touched the surface. We plan to spend more time running solutions after completion to see what we can be doing as the company is continually changing our files, moving credit hours to solve for staffing issues, and requiring us to include various parameters to solve for their concerns, e.g. incorrect base staffing, required minimum turn times in PDX and SEA, etc. Each of these parameters cost us money which means we lose any budget we would have had and are unable to use it for quality of life improvements. The down side if we don’t include their parameters in our solutions is that they will pick their baseline run which has no improvements at all, no matter how slight. While we understand that three plus hours sits and long turn times are not optimal with the small amount of budget we have remaining after including their preferences they are the only improvements we are able to add. Here is an example of their baseline run which would have been the only other option had we not included their mandatory “requests”
The best news from this bid, we are finally reaching a point where we have enough experience in the system and enough eyes on the solutions, that we will now be able to experiment a little between bids.
Parameters for the Pairing Solution
The parameters that AFA added to the pairing solution for this bid are as follows:
Rest may not be shorter than your duty day; before or after said rest. This means however long your duty hours were 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 five scheduled flight legs/day, which includes any DHs (of course there can be less flight legs). There is an 11-hour minimum rest in this month as well.
AFA also added the parameter of 3:00 max sit times in PDX and SEA with 2:00 max sit times at all other airports. We still have SNA set to 2:40 as well to avoid any double DH situations.
MFR: We were still able to force away the late-night SEA-MFR (landing after midnight) and give it to another domicile; this should help in your bidding. If you have scheduling recommendations, please let Jana Gray know so she can evaluate and forward her recommendations.
PDX: If you have scheduling recommendations, please let Jolene or Sherry Busch know and they will evaluate all requests and forward their recommendations.
PAE: This month we have an additional 500 hours in PAE as we feel that there are more FAs that want to fly there. If you are needing help with bidding or trying to avoid PAE pairings in PBS, please contact the PBS Scheduling Committee member Lexie Massey, at qxfa.joint.pbs.committee@horizonair.com. If you have scheduling recommendations, please forward to Jennifer Levcun.
SEA: If you have scheduling recommendations, please forward to Kenneth Cantu or Nicole Lajuett.
GEG: If you are based in GEG please let Jennifer Turnbow know of any specific recommendations.
BOI: We still do not have anyone that has volunteered for the scheduling committee. If you are interested, please let Joelle Jaeger know.
October will be our seventh full month of mixed-pairing flying. With it, there were a total of 1494 trips between all bases. Of those 377 are pure E175 flying and 224 are pure Q400 flying. There are 893 mixed trips. That’s 59.8% mixed, 25.2% trips are pure E175, and 15.0% are pure Q400 trips.
Break down by base:
• BOI has 152 total trips; 0 E175 trips; 62 Q400 trips; and 90 mixed (59.2% mixed)
• GEG has 262 total trips; 31 E175 trips; 61 Q400 trips; and 170 mixed (64.9% mixed)
• MFR has 77 total trips; 0 E175 trips; 23 Q400 trips; and 54 mixed (70.1% mixed)
• PDX has 447 total trips; 93 E175 trips; 52 Q400 trips; and 302 mixed (67.6% mixed)
• SEA has 337 total trips; 62 E175 trips; 40 Q400 trips; and 235 mixed (69.7% mixed and this doesn’t include PAE flying)
• PAE has 219 total trips; 193 E175 trips; 0 Q400 trips; and 26 mixed (0.12% mixed)
Percentage of trips/day:
| Base | 1-Day | 2-Day | 3-Day | 4-Day | 5-Day |
| BOI | 25.7 | 48.7 | 23.0 | 2.6 | |
| GEG | 18.3 | 51.5 | 26.0 | 3.8 | 0.4 |
| MFR | 18.2 | 63.6 | 16.9 | 1.3 | N/A |
| PDX | 19.2 | 22.6 | 32.9 | 25 | N/A |
| SEA | 13.4 | 6.5 | 41.2 | 40 | N/A |
| PAE | 55.7 | 21.9 | 19.6 | 2.7 | N/A |
Credit per base:
| BOI | 2814:58 | 8.2% |
| GEG | 5269:40 | 15.3% |
| MFR | 1428:02 | 4.1% |
| PDX | 1428:02 | 34.2% |
| SEA | 9647:44 | 28.0% |
| PAE | 3494:24 | 10.0% |
| SEA (total) | 13142:08 | 38.1% |
Credit Time/Duty:
BOI: 4:38
GEG: 4:54
MFR: 4:36
PDX: 5:02
SEA: 5:18
PAE: 5:08
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
Council 17 Scheduling Chair (PDX/MFR)
Cyndy Mathison
MEC Crew Scheduling Liaison
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)
Jennifer Levcun
Council 16 Scheduling Rep (PAE)
Jennifer Turnbow
Council 16 Scheduling Rep (GEG)