spooldup

Seems like you guys will be enjoying DS from now on... Wonder how he will be working with you guys compared to how/what he did here at F9.

Flyby1206

Any comments good/bad/ugly? Reading the F9 thread seemed like he wasn’t terrible and did some decent stuff.

fcoolaiddrinker

He's sharp and knows the industry well. Knowledgeable on competition data/strategy and markets. He was the one guy that came into rgs and was honest with what he could discuss. It’s my opinion Barry Biffle threw him under the bus for evaporating over 1 billion in market cap. That was a nice hire. I think you’ll be happy with it.

spooldup

Basically what koolaid said. I do think he was the brain behind the idea of day turns and stuff. He left, I am assuming because him and BB didnt get along towards the tail end of his career here. He also was the person who came up with most of our bag things, along with compensating gate agents for each bag they found oversized. He was honest (came right into RGS and said he regretted closing our ORD base and would hopefully have it reopened with in a few years, this was in 2022 and it is reopened), he also has a job to do and needs to do it, no matter what the employees think about it.

I am curious what he will bring to JB and what will change with you guys assuming be has the same kind of mindset he did here. Overall, I think he was a nice guy and probably the only one in the palace who didnt mind talking to people about his thoughts and plans.

fcoolaiddrinker

Closing chi (co ord and mdw) was all biffle. He might have provided some data to him to justify it but that was an emotional Biffle decision. Sounds like he took one for the team if he said that.
The guy was in a management position at f9 when we had a jb type model. I’m sure he’s happy to be out and not have to deal with this management anymore.

Flyby1206

The day turns/small base stuff that you guys have shifted towards lately has been getting a lot of chatter internally here too. So maybe we will see JB moving away from everyone being based in a hub and open up some smaller BDL/TPA/DCA/SJU bases. I know they feel like SJU is an important part of the network and want to compete against F9 there

fcoolaiddrinker

Do you have any language that helps mitigate a true all day trip model? I’m not so sure DS is the brains behind a day trip model? If he was and it’s a great idea why is he gone?

Flyby1206

Yes, we have individual base requirements for minimum 5% pairing mix each of 1-2-3-4day trips, 5day trips can be a max of 10% in a base. Also systemwide pairing distribution limits.

Day trips could theoretically be up to 85% in a base though

fcoolaiddrinker

Thats better than nothing but might want to expand that % a bit and/or throw in hotels if pairings don't meet % in domiciles. There’s other alpa carriers with that language so you’re not outside industry standard with that ask.

Flyby1206

Yeah that’s a good idea. As it stands now we have more locals in our hubs as a % than we have day trip pairings, but that could change. We just opened Section 6 so now would be the time to make changes