9.06.24 – APFA PHL Base Brief – October 2024 Staffing and Allocations

October 2024 PHL Staffing and Allocations

Friday, September 6, 2024

Hello PHL,

Allocations

Our monthly Allocations Call took place on September 3rd.

Systemwide flying will increase by roughly 2-2.5%. The system line average will increase to 79.2 hours from 77.9 hours in SEP. Events in October that will have an impact on planning will primarily be multiple NCAA football charters system wide, the PGA golf tournaments in Utah, the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, and the Furniture Mart in NC. Towards the end of the month, there is a systemwide pull down of flying that is projected to continue into the first part of November.

Staffing

Our monthly line average is projected to be 77.7, a slight increase from 77.5 in September. This is the lowest line average system wide. The highest line average will be in LGA at 80.0 hours. PHL’s overall headcount is down by 59 from 2640 in September to 2581 for October due primarily to transfers. Reserve numbers increased from 17.5% to 18.3%. The systemwide average is 18.4%, with CLT and DFW being the highest (23.6% and 18.7% respectively). The total number of hours allocated to PHL for October will be 139,379. This is a 2.2% decrease from 142,560 hours in September. What’s interesting is October will have an increase to the average daily sequence starts, 250 per day. September’s average was only 216. If the number of daily sequences increase, why would the hours allotted to the base decrease? We asked this question, and quite frankly, management’s response made no sense. Their response was a combination of increased efficiencies of trips, headcount being down, pull down of IPD, vacation, and transfers out. We will continue to press them on this and update the base if anything changes.

Reserve

We have questioned our high Reserve numbers. The response given was Reserve usage has remained high in PHL throughout the summer and typical fall trends for the base. Other operational drivers for reserves (such as weather, maintenance, position within our network) have also influenced the reserve need in PHL for the fall. We will continue to challenge management on these numbers.

ODANs

ODAN sequences have increased. BOS, PWM, BGR, CHS, PVD, IND, BTV, DTW, PIT, BDL are available to bid.

IPD

DOH remains staffed with 10 positions. The seasonal pull down continues in October. NCE, VCE, CPH close their seasonal flying on October 5th, while NAP ends the season on October 25th. These sequences will work over and then DH home.

Domestic Wide-body Flying

Once again, PHL will have 2 widebody charters both staffed with 09 positions; a 3-day on the 787 departing on the 25th with an overnight in LNK, and a 2-day on the 26th with an overnight in CVG. The DFW 2-day on the 787 operates on the 01-05 and 26-31. There will only be one MIA turn operating on the 7th.

PIT Satellite

PIT will see a slight decrease of 48 hours of flying from 4,733 to 4,685. If you use the monthly line average of 77.7 for PHL as a guide, there will be roughly 60 lines of pure-satellite flying for OCT.

VLOA’s

No VLOA’s are being offered in OCT

General Reminders

Ballots for the October Ditching Workshops will close on 06SEP @ 1400 CT. Balloting will be done on the Inflight website. Jetnet > Inflight > Training > Additional Training.

If you are on Reserve, you must be able to report within 2 hours for an assignment. We are seeing a gradual increase in Reserve Not Positioned for Duty violations. Please make sure you review Reserve, Section 12 of the JCBA. If you have any questions, reach out to our PHL APFA office at 215-360-3115.

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PHL STRONG! PHL PROUD!

In Solidarity,

Tracey Montanari
APFA PHL Base President
[email protected]

John Pratt
APFA PHL Base Vice President
[email protected]