Question for Comair guys??

[skydiverdriver]

Well,
Our chief pilot wouldn't say that, as our contract stipulates that any new crew base must stay open for at least five years. They also must give us 90 days notice.

 

[PositiveRate]

I thought it was 60 days notice.

I heard the ATL rumor from J.C. as well...basically a done deal if we can get some sort of guarantee from mama D that the base is more than just a short term bargaining chip against ASA.

The crewroom buzz is that the announcement will come in may/june for a september opening. It's all heresay at this point...

 

[JetPilot_Mike]

Well,
Our chief pilot wouldn't say that, as our contract stipulates that any new crew base must stay open for at least five years. They also must give us 90 days notice.

Is that at Mesaba? One of the perks of your shiney new contract?

Yes, it is 60 days notice at Comair for the opening of a new domicile. And, if they then close the base 6 month's later, or really if ever, they have to pay to relocate all the crew members based there. That can get quite expensive.

 

[bvt1151]

The estimate of $800,000 annually at the ATL hotel is way short.

Average $40 a night per crewmember. (probably low) times
100 crewmembers a night equals $4,000 a night.

30 nights a month = $120,000.

12 months a year = $1.44 million.

And thats at a very conservative $40 a night!

 

[P38JLightning]

ATL

BVT,

Yep, and don't forget per diem. we have a few short layovers, but a lot of 16, 18, almost 24 hour layovers. Times around 70-100 crewmembers (including FA's) times 1.65 an hour. Yikes.

And don't forget the tons of deadheading to and from (a lot of which is on FULL flights, resulting in bumping/compensating/ticking off revenuer pax) and of course the almost daily ferry flights to and from, as well as numerous cancellations and late flights set off from a chain reaction caused by one misconnect anywhere in the system.

Yep, gotta love the portfolio system!

 

[DDpaysoff]

Here is how our rig structure works:
There are four different rigs. At the end of the month each rig is calculated and you are paid the greatest of the four.

1. MIN DAY RIG: Every day you show up to work and sign in the computer you are CREDITED 4:20

2. DUTY RIG: For every 2 minutes you are on DUTY you are CREDITED 1 minute.

3. TRIP RIG: For every 3 and 1/2 minutes you are on a trip you are CREDITED one minute. Not exactly sure if it is 3.5 or 3, contract is up in CVG.

4. NORMAL DAY RIG: For every 1 minute you fly you are CREDITED 1 minute, Block or better.

At the end of the month (look back), all the rigs are calculated and your check is for the amount of hours for the rig that earned you the most credit.

The most common for lineholders is the normal day rig. If you hold a high speed line it may be possible to get paid up to 95 hours on the duty rig, but not all high speeds pay more than the 76 hour guarentee for lineholders. A reserve pilot often may get paid for the min day rig. I.E. work 19 days 19x4:20= 82:20, even though they only flew for say 73 hours. Besides those three examples it is very rare to break the normal day credit.
Hope this answers your question. As you can see there is still work to be done here.

 

[JetPilot_Mike]

3. TRIP RIG: For every 3 and 1/2 minutes you are on a trip you are CREDITED one minute. Not exactly sure if it is 3.5 or 3, contract is up in CVG.

I believe for Comair the Trip Rig is 1:3.75

 

[CaptDave]

Yes, lots of hotel expense.

On the other side is moving expenses out of ATL if the company decides to close the base. Without looking it up, I think they are responsible. I think this would be at least $800,000 for the 350-390 pilots. The flight attendant contract might have to pay them moving expenses also, I am not sure.

 

[P38JLightning]

big picture

CaptDave,

Yeah I heard we won't put a domicile in ATL unless DAL gives us a 15 year commitment. Yeah right. I bet they wouldn't give us a 15 year commitment on CVG.

But 800K is chump change compared to what we are spending on hotels, per diem, dead heading, ferry flights and loss of on time performance and cancellations (because one flight cancels, or one crew member gets sick or whatever, setting off chain reactions that screw up many more flights for the rest of the day) each year.

Double that for FA's and you get about 2.5 million. I bet we waste more than that IN ONE YEAR running this alter ego paper shell of ourselves just because we don't have a domicile. No amount of fuzzy math could justify that, to either a DAL or a Comair manager. It just doesn't add up.

Unless, of course, they don't care. Like, perhaps, they are so wrapped up around getting massive 40% cuts from the Delta pilots so they don't tick off the gate agents. Maybe they are worrying about keeping the mechanics from demanding to ride on every tug for every pushback. Maybe GG needs those cuts from the pilots, and only from the pilots, so the brandy sniffers at the country club (many of which he "shouldn't" have hired and "shouldn't" have JUST GIVEN them massive "retention" packages will love him again.

Maybe 4 or 5 million a year is chump change to them and its not even on their radar screen. Oh but the 800K, if they close the base within 2 years of opening it, yeah that's the deal breaker.

Now there's another possibility too that actually does make sense financialy. Like Comair is only going to be this large in ATL to scare ASA into a "below the bar" contract (again, no brandy sniffer wants to explain "Comair plus" to his blue blooded ATA/RAA labor bashing fellow nobles) and once that happens we'll quietly go away just like we did in DFW.

So either they don't know what they're doing, they don't care how much money they are wasting, or our large presence there is only a temporary back filling scare tactic.