Someone from Southwest?

[M.82]

Hi,

I was wondering if someone know about southwest´s pilot schedule. I mean, if this great company is based on a point-to-point carrier, I can only imagine that today I start in Logan, and toomorrow I will be in Las Vegas, and when will I go back home?. How many hours are they flying monthly?.

And what about the maintenance?, do you have parts of aircraft around all the USA?.


Thanks and sory if you do not understand something.
;)

[MarkerInbound]

Not SW but:

SW has pilot bases in Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Oakland, Phoenix, Orlando, Chicago and Baltimore so all lines would start in in those cities. They have a 78 hour guarantee but can make more.

Not sure about how their schedules are built.

[Northbeach]

I was wondering if someone know about southwest´s pilot schedule. I mean, if this great company is based on a point-to-point carrier, I can only imagine that today I start in Logan, and toomorrow I will be in Las Vegas, and when will I go back home?.

Typically your trip will start and end in the same domicile city. If you are based in Phoenix, you will start your three day trip in Phoenix. At the end of the first day you may be in Boston (or wherever). The second day starts in Boston and ends in Chicago. Day three starts in Chicago then ends up back in Phoenix, your "base" and you are done.

Trips cold be one day, two day, three day or four days of flying. Each day may have three, four or five landings before you are done with the day's flying.

How many hours are they flying monthly?.

Each airline is different. As pilots flying domestic most of us are limited to 1,000 hours of flight time a year. Divide that figure by 12 months and you get 83 +/- flight hours a month. Most schedules are bult around that figure +/-.

Scheduling becomes complex; so there is more to the story than my simple explanation-but that is the basics. There is duty and trip riggs, overtime, vacation buy back, monthly guarantees, regular schedules (lines) vs reserve lines, "soft time", credit and probably dozens of other factors that all come into play.

However flying 80 hours a month is not the same as working 80 hours a month stocking shelves, punching a clock or sitting at a desk. My work day may only have 7 1/2 hours of flight time scheduled, but also include 13 1/2 hours of being on duty. The time you spend in uniform at the airport "working" to get your flight out on time, or sitting around to unload, fuel, and load the next flight does not "count". To work 85 hours a month I likely spend 340 hours away from home and 13 nights in a hotel all for 80 hours of flight time.

And what about the maintenance?, do you have parts of aircraft around all the USA?

Yes, if we fly a shedule into a destination then we must have maintenance available. Now that may mean we contract our maintenance out to some vendor, or we may have our own employees. Each airline is different here. Basically if we are authorized to schedule a flight to that destination then we must be able to support that flight's maintenance requirements.

[M.82]

Wow, nice work, great employees I guess.

I can't believe that the time that you spend at the airport didn't count, where I work, the time start when the car pick you up from your home (service time, not fly time).

In sum, you start today and for sure you come back tomorrow. And if the aicraft has a problem in a middle point, could be not from southwest who take care the baby.

And the same crew fly the same aircraft during all day, because in 20 minutes you don't have time to change aircraft.

Interesting, thanks for your help!

[Northbeach]

Again, I do not fly for Southwest therefore I don't speak for their pilots in any capacity. I tried to make that very clear in my first post; in the title of my first answer I said "Not Southwest". I should have clearer about that point. Sorry for the confusion, I should have done a better job making that point clear. You had not received a direct reply from a Southwest pilot, so I tried to give you some industry background.

I can't believe that the time that you spend at the airport didn't count, where I work, the time start when the car pick you up from your home (service time, not fly time).

The time at the airport does not count for flight pay, it does not figure in the monthly flight time amount. However it does count for duty time as well as getting paid per diem. We get a small amount of money for each hour on duty (time that you spend at the airport) to pay for food. The time at the airport does count when calculating required rest time between flights.

And if the aicraft has a problem in a middle point, could be not from southwest who take care the baby.

I believe Southwest is 100% unionized. Therefore I think that all of Southwest's line maintenance is done by their employees. Again I do not work for Southwest, "I believe" and "I think" are only my thoughts (uncorrected) about this specific carrier.

At our airline it is likely that some contracted maintenance worker would do the service on our jet at an outstation. Either way whether our own employees do the work, or it is contracted out our Airline is responsible for the quality of the work done.

I would rather we have our own employees do the work. But I am not paid to make those decisions. I understand the economic arguments for each business model.

And the same crew fly the same aircraft during all day, because in 20 minutes you don't have time to change aircraft.

Not really, we may in fact change airplanes during a day of flying. Our time on the ground is usually somewhere between 50 minutes and an hour. We can't operatioally routinely turn a jet around in 20 minutes. Southwest is likely faster than us on turning the jets-but I do not know what their scheduled ground time is.

A single day of flying may have only one flight or as many as six legs(takeoff & landing), and it is possible to have an aircraft swap (changing jets) or two in the day.

Southwest is a tough direct competitior of ours. They run a good operation, I respect them from a distance. At the same time I content to be where I am.

Northbeach

[M.82]

Thanks for your replys Northbeach,

you helped me to order some ideas and thoughts about SW,

Thanks!
:ok: