What qualifies an airport as a base for an airline?

[Angry Rebel]

Pseudo technical/semantic question, but what does an airline need to be doing at an airport for it to be classified as a base for that airline?
- based aircraft?
- crew who operate primarily from that airport?
- line maintenance capabilities?

[DaveReidUK]

Pseudo technical/semantic question, but what does an airline need to be doing at an airport for it to be classified as a base for that airline?
- based aircraft?
- crew who operate primarily from that airport?
- line maintenance capabilities?

Definitely (a) - an airport where aircraft are based counts as a base.

[Intruder]

Not definite at all. Some airlines have bases with no airplanes or office space at all.

A "base" is usually defined in a labor agreement, or policy manual where there are none.

[grounded27]

Base is defined by your agreement with your CAA in your OPS SPEC.

[DaveReidUK]

Not definite at all. Some airlines have bases with no airplanes or office space at all.

That's perfectly consistent with the statement I made.

Anywhere that you see large numbers of a carrier's aircraft on the ground overnight (assuming we're talking about a short-haul airline) is a de facto base.

But you are correct in that absence of aircraft doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't one.

[Angry Rebel]

Thanks for the responses.