PreFlight

Welcome to the Rotate Newsletter. This newsletter is meant to provide insight to the aspiring aviator who wishes to join the commercial airline industry. This newsletter will provide the reader with the advantages and disadvantages of each airline and help determine the best airline suited to the needs of you and your family. Each airline has subtle differences in their contracts that have large impacts on a pilot’s career and job satisfaction. This newsletter is the first edition covering United Airlines and we will start with scheduling.

To start, let's cover United’s base locations. United has 11 base domiciles in their system; Chicago O'Hare, Washington, D.C., Newark, Orlando, Cleveland, Houston (Bush), Denver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Guam. United also has satellite bases at the majority of their domiciles (i.e., San Jose for San Fran or Tampa for Orlando), allowing for greater flexibility for its pilot group. United only has one training location, and that is in Denver. The company is currently headquartered in Chicago.

United currently has over 17,000 pilots in its pilot group. To date, United has hired over 800 pilots this year, with the goal of hiring 800 more by the end. The company’s CEO has stated the 2030 goal is to have over 28,000 pilots in its pilot group, and the company has a very large number of airplanes on order with both Airbus and Boeing. The company had a brief pause in the hiring department due to the lack of deliveries of airplanes, but just announced the flight department was resuming hiring. United is planning to hire an additional 800 by the end of the year.

Scheduling

United’s process starts the same as Delta’s with the Preferential Bidding System. United’s bid window begins on the 4th of each month and closes on the 10th. The company has to award the Captain bids by the 13th and the First Officers by the 15th. Each pilot is either awarded a line or reserve schedule for the next month. On the 17th of each month, line pilots can create trades for the next month. These trades are run through the system starting on the 21st of each month. Line holders at United have a lot of flexibility with their schedules. Once the lines are awarded, pilots can do a trip-for-trip trade, trade with peers, or trade trips on other days if reserve coverage is worse on the days the pilot is trading into. Line holders can also submit a request to pick up a trip that is in open time.

Reserves are awarded a 73 minimum pay guarantee. This equates to a 12 day off schedule for a 30 day bid month and a 13 day off schedule for a 31 day period. Reserves may move working days to off days, provided that adequate reserve coverage exists. United puts its reserves into “silos.”. These are simply pilot groupings based on the number of reserve days available. Crew Scheduling (CS) makes assignments based on “First In/First Out” within the silos. This means if a pilot is assigned a trip but has more days available after that assignment, that pilot returns to the silo at the bottom of the list. The more senior the reserve pilot, the further down he or she begins in the silo prior to assignment. The CS assignment window occurs daily between 1300-1459 local base time. CS can schedule a pilot into a day that disrupts an off day. Typically, this comes with a pay above guarantee. For reserves, United has Flexible Day Off (FDO) and Holy Day Off (HDO). A FDO is a day that may be disrupted for a rotation assignment. This assignment must be awarded the day prior to the FDO and a pilot may only receive one FDO per bid period. HDOs are days that a reserve can not be awarded a rotation; all days off except the single FDO are HDOs.

Short Call assignments are for a single day of reserve. An unused Short Call pilot will return to Long Call status at the end of the assigned Short Call period. Once on Short Call, the pilot has two hours and thirty minutes to report to an assigned rotation. If the trip has a report time of three hours or less, the company will reimburse the pilot for parking to alleviate tardiness for the departure. Shorter call out times may be offered by CS, but this comes with pay incentives, which will be covered in future issues. At United, CS can convert a Short Call pilot to Field Standby. Field Standby is a four hour period of availability during which the pilot must be present at the airport. If given a trip on this assignment, the first leg can only be during the day. Field Standby does come with pay, and in the future, pilots will be assigned based on their volunteer status. Currently, CS is free to assign Field Standby to any available Short Call pilot.

Pilots wishing to pick up a trip can do so via Aggressive Pick Up. The advantage of this is that a pilot can request an assignment of a trip that is one day shorter than his or her current silo. These requests are processed at 1045 each morning the day prior and are awarded in seniority order. These requests are submitted via Crew Companion, which is a website for pilots.

Brake Set

Hopefully, this gives you an insight into the scheduling process at United Airlines. This does not encompass all the rules that reside within the contract and is a basic overview. United has some of the best rules in the airline industry. Next issue, Rotate will explore soft pay that United Airlines offers.

1  John Collins has over 16 years of professional aviation experience. He currently serves as a Captain for a major airline. Previously, he served in the United States Marine Corps, flying AV-8B Harriers. John holds a Masters in Aeronautics.