Desk workload

[dx8709]

Hey everyone.

I'm interested to hear from people at the various carriers about your typical daily flight release workload (both pre-covid and present day). If your carrier has domestic and international desks, please note which you are referring to. Be sure to include variations by shift (AM/PM/Graveyard). Regional, LCC, cargo, and Big 3 responses all welcomed and encouraged. Please also participate in the anonymous poll attached to this thread which concerns FAR 121.601.


§ 121.601 Aircraft dispatcher information to pilot in command: Domestic and flag operations.

(a) The aircraft dispatcher shall provide the pilot in command all available current reports or information on airport conditions and irregularities of navigation facilities that may affect the safety of the flight.
(b) Before beginning a flight, the aircraft dispatcher shall provide the pilot in command with all available weather reports and forecasts of weather phenomena that may affect the safety of flight, including adverse weather phenomena, such as clear air turbulence, thunderstorms, and low altitude wind shear, for each route to be flown and each airport to be used.
(c) During a flight, the aircraft dispatcher shall provide the pilot in command any additional available information of meteorological conditions (including adverse weather phenomena, such as clear air turbulence, thunderstorms, and low altitude wind shear), and irregularities of facilities and services that may affect the safety of the flight.

Source

 

[Mainline_or_bust]

We have a contractual workload agreement with the company. Based on the time and difficulty to plan and flight follow. It’s the only place I’ve heard with this kind of thing and I hope it catches on. If the points are too much, (workload too high), then the company is obligated to call out overtime to cover. Our yearly bidding is based on it as well. It works well and is nearly perfect, IMO.

 

[charlieoscar]

We have a contractual workload agreement with the company. Based on the time and difficulty to plan and flight follow. It’s the only place I’ve heard with this kind of thing and I hope it catches on. If the points are too much, (workload too high), then the company is obligated to call out overtime to cover. Our yearly bidding is based on it as well. It works well and is nearly perfect, IMO.

That sounds amazing... You'd be fighting quite the battle to try and implement something like that at your typical regional. Especially right now.

My approach to high workload is to always prioritize my enroute problems and my flight following over my releases. If you need a release, you're safe on the ground and can wait. Everything else stops when I get an ACARS. I'd rather have my boss questioning a late departure than have the feds questioning something much worse.

 

[fsxflyhigh]

My approach to high workload is to always prioritize my enroute problems and my flight following over my releases. If you need a release, you're safe on the ground and can wait. Everything else stops when I get an ACARS. I'd rather have my boss questioning a late departure than have the feds questioning something much worse.

This is why so many airlines ask about workload prioritization in interviews from the regionals to the majors. Always prepare for the "you have a bomb threat, serious inflight medical, and engine failure, which do you handle first" type question.

The big thing I have to remind myself is don't be afraid to ask for help if you are getting overwhelmed. We all like to think that we work solo or that by passing things off to co-worker makes you a bad dispatcher. But that is further from the truth! we are all one big team and passing off flights during a high workload is just an example of good DRM. Now obviously its a bit hard to pass off flights when everyone has multiple flights to the hub and they are all holding with minimal gas.

 

[N77022]

40-50 releases. From the tippity top of ZSE down to the furthest reaches of ZMA, 20 in the air at once, short 30-45 minutes hops, 5+ hour transcons.

Feels great on a Monday, very exciting stuff. Tuesday is a little bit less fun. By the third day it feels like too much, borderline unmanageable.

 

[manniax]

40-50 releases. From the tippity top of ZSE down to the furthest reaches of ZMA, 20 in the air at once, short 30-45 minutes hops, 5+ hour transcons.

Feels great on a Monday, very exciting stuff. Tuesday is a little bit less fun. By the third day it feels like too much, borderline unmanageable.

That does sound like a lot. Unfortunately it also sounds fairly typical for a regional. Workable on a decent weather day and almost impossible on a bad one.

 

[dispatchguy]

I'd also factor in the Flight Planning System, is it one step above an E6B and chase-around spaghetti charts, or can it do a lot of the grunt work so you can concentrate on dispatching...

Pile in a typical crappy weather day, and still having to click 20-30 times for the typical domestic release, and the workload can get red line pretty quick... I do miss the AA JR Mask...

 

[A1TAPE]

What was the JR mask? Just release it?

 

[Pancake]

The JR Mask is a template in DECs to build a release. It can be super nice to use as FOS/DECs is command line based and can be fully navigated by just the keyboard (Tab and Shift/Tab move forward and backwards between user changeable fields). Filling one out can take literal seconds if you’ve got no MELs, it’s a clear weather day, and you’ve already checked your NOTAMs. It has its downsides and can be difficult to learn, but its quick.

 

[Flyguy87]

Does AA still use the JR mask like Envoy does?

 

[RegionalDXer]

Does AA still use the JR mask like Envoy does?

yes but both Envoy and AA will be moving to Flight Keys later this year is the rumor.

 

[PHL_Approach]

yes but both Envoy and AA will be moving to Flight Keys later this year is the rumor.

Aaaaaaaaaabouuuuutttt tiiiiiimeeee.

 

[RegionalDXer]

Aaaaaaaaaabouuuuutttt tiiiiiimeeee.

envoy DX are probably somewhat uset since it will not give them that much of a leg up like the DECS/RES did

 

[Flagship_dxer]

yes but both Envoy and AA will be moving to Flight Keys later this year is the rumor.

Not happening this year. Next year? We will find out soon. The 2022 bid will be out in a few months.

 

[mikealpha]

Not happening this year. Next year? We will find out soon. The 2022 bid will be out in a few months.

So the rumored AA class this yr will still have to learn DECS....

 

[Space Monkey]

Hey everyone.

I'm interested to hear from people at the various carriers about your typical daily flight release workload (both pre-covid and present day). If your carrier has domestic and international desks, please note which you are referring to. Be sure to include variations by shift (AM/PM/Graveyard). Regional, LCC, cargo, and Big 3 responses all welcomed and encouraged. Please also participate in the anonymous poll attached to this thread which concerns FAR 121.601.


§ 121.601 Aircraft dispatcher information to pilot in command: Domestic and flag operations.

(a) The aircraft dispatcher shall provide the pilot in command all available current reports or information on airport conditions and irregularities of navigation facilities that may affect the safety of the flight.
(b) Before beginning a flight, the aircraft dispatcher shall provide the pilot in command with all available weather reports and forecasts of weather phenomena that may affect the safety of flight, including adverse weather phenomena, such as clear air turbulence, thunderstorms, and low altitude wind shear, for each route to be flown and each airport to be used.
(c) During a flight, the aircraft dispatcher shall provide the pilot in command any additional available information of meteorological conditions (including adverse weather phenomena, such as clear air turbulence, thunderstorms, and low altitude wind shear), and irregularities of facilities and services that may affect the safety of the flight.

Source

It's all about the desk, 'bout the desk
No flyin'.
All about the desk...
Shake it, shake it.
Like you're supposed to do,
You got dat boom boom.
Your interview be perfect
From the bottom to the top.
It's all about the desk, 'bout the desk.

 

[RegionalDXer]

Not happening this year. Next year? We will find out soon. The 2022 bid will be out in a few months.

The DX I know at Envoy have said they will be getting trained on it later in the year but with Envoy bringing in 4Dx classes they don’t know when the Flight Keys system will be trained.

 

[Flagship_dxer]

The DX I know at Envoy have said they will be getting trained on it later in the year but with Envoy bringing in 4Dx classes they don’t know when the Flight Keys system will be trained.

I cant speak for Envoy. Mainline won’t be getting it this year and anything for next year is still being worked out.

 

[Nkdx]

Put it this way… there’s probably at least one ASAP amongst the group being filed every day.

 

[BruinsFan]

I cant speak for Envoy. Mainline won’t be getting it this year and anything for next year is still being worked out.

Plan at Mainline is for the Europe Dispatchers to get Flightkeys training in Q1 2022 and also to go live in the same Quarter. Pacific Folks will get training later in Q1 with a rollout in Q2. Latin Folks will get training and rollout in Q2. The tentative plan is for the Domestic dispatchers to get training in Q3 with the system being rolled out in Q3.

That is the plan. What I think will really happen is that Europe and Pacific will roll out on time. The issue then becomes with the Latin folks is the end of Q2 and Q3 are the peak flying seasons, and this presents two issues. One is pulling people off a desk for training, and the second is the risk of switching flight planning systems during a peak travel season. I dont see Latin rolling out until the end of Q3, and I dont see Domestic switching over until the start of Q4. Maybe Q3 since the flying starts ramping down in mid August.

My understanding is also that the AA folks have already received access to the manual on Flight Keys but have not received any training yet.

We have a contractual workload agreement with the company. Based on the time and difficulty to plan and flight follow. It’s the only place I’ve heard with this kind of thing and I hope it catches on. If the points are too much, (workload too high), then the company is obligated to call out overtime to cover. Our yearly bidding is based on it as well. It works well and is nearly perfect, IMO.

I think this is a model that needs to be shared among all the majors. Not sure if your shop is PAFCA or TWU, but this language needs to be negotiated at all the major airlines. Sadly, I think the workload is having to be addressed by the ASAP programs in most airlines. I know my POI has been asking me about my thoughts on workload since there have been numerous ASAP reports on Workload.