Originally Posted by
LarryJ
Because a "disaster" at their outstation has very little impact on their overall network. The "disaster" always hits the affected airport's hub carrier(s) much harder. They can take advantage of the extra revenue on the majority of days that aren't "disasters" and cancel a handful of flights on the days that are.
When the FAA cuts EWR's operations by 60% for multiple days in a row, schedule trimming isn't going to make much difference. The problems causing such a drastic reduction have to be addressed.
A larger number of EWR-based pilots and F/As live in Florida. One of the ideas behind the Florida bases is to have fewer crewmembers commuting from Florida to EWR.
I have not heard any of such outage and I was flying in the middle of it. What I have heard was schedulers working 16-hour shifts and the scheduling departments running at 130% staffing levels.
United, and other large airlines, are in constant contact with regulators, the FAA, and the ATC command center in D.C. The Network Operations Center (NOC) in Chicago has an ATC desk that coordinates real-time with ATC to work solutions to bottlenecks and minimize system disruption.
What I read from multiple sources is that crews could not contact scheduling or had to remain on hold for hours on end which did not result in a repaired line. I also read that crews were not able to contact operations to arrange for overnight accommodations. The combination resulted in flights unable to operate because of crew schedule issues. When crew can't use the system it would be offline or out of use. Perhaps that's the wrong way to describe it but the impact was measurable unless the sources/descriptions were wrong.
If the bases are away from the hub then how are reserves handled? What good does it do to have reserves in Orlando when you have a meltdown in EWR and can't get in? If ua is going to have a hub in ewr you would think you need reserves there