Alaska opens new SAN pilot base

Cherokee_Cruiser

Cherokee_Cruiser

Bronteroc
Over two bids, end goal for 2026 looks like 140 CAs, 110 FOs. At the expense of 20-25% reduction in both San Fran and LA.


Now 2/6 AS pilot bases are unique for passenger major airline (ANC and SAN).


Planning to hire still 90 FOs in Q1 2026. 20-30 more CA upgrades in Q1.
 
BEEF SUPREME said:
So between SFO and LAX there could be a reduction of up to 122 captains?
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Up to, yes. To fill the 140 CA slots. So still positive net 18 there plus the 20-30 more CAs.

38-48 more net CAs, but as you’ve always said, take that number and half it to be more realistic. Net new maybe 19-28 CAs.


I think this will get a little ugly on the very junior side. If you want to continue playing Captain at all cost, you will have to bid all 6 bases as CA before you put SEA FO as #7.
 
Let’s see how long we can keep this one out of the Lav. Any bets? 3 days tops

I’m selfishly stoked for a SAN base, but not at the expense of junior people elsewhere in any seat/position getting screwed. So we will have to see, but I wouldn’t want to be a junior CA in any domicile right now, or someone living in the Bay Area who is junior in either seat.
 
It’s going to be a bloodbath for junior captains but at least there won’t be furloughs.

There’s no way the number of new captain positions will equal the number of reductions plus senior pilots bidding for captain. I’ve only been tracking SEA but on the last bid it was 34 or 35. That’s just one base.
 
Maurus said:
Hence why I said it is likely fenced off. 🙃
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I think the fence term is confusing because fenced typically comes/referred as SLI restrictions.

There’s no SLI yet so naturally, it’s AS only because it’s cheapest to do it this way.

Same as Hawaiian. They are opening 787 SEA and can only be bid by HAL guys. And next summer, they wind down and close HNL 787. Again, HAL displacements only.


Most cheapest way to do it. In fact if I was AS mgt, I would fully staff SEA 787 with HAL folks and SAN with AS folks. Before SLI, so post SLI, people are only moving with normal vacancy bids. (As opposed to base open/closure displacement bids).
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
I think the fence term is confusing because fenced typically comes/referred as SLI restrictions.

There’s no SLI yet so naturally, it’s AS only because it’s cheapest to do it this way.

Same as Hawaiian. They are opening 787 SEA and can only be bid by HAL guys. And next summer, they wind down and close HNL 787. Again, HAL displacements only.


Most cheapest way to do it. In fact if I was AS mgt, I would fully staff SEA 787 with HAL folks and SAN with AS folks. Before SLI, so post SLI, people are only moving with normal vacancy bids. (As opposed to base open/closure displacement bids).
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It has nothing to do with cost. It's who has rights to fly the airplanes that will be based there. If they decided to put a 321 base in SAN at the same time as opening the 737 base, those category vacancies base positions would belong to HAL pilots.
 
BobDDuck said:
It has nothing to do with cost. It's who has rights to fly the airplanes that will be based there. If they decided to put a 321 base in SAN at the same time as opening the 737 base, those category vacancies base positions would belong to HAL pilots.
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Um, that is to do with cost. I’m referring to timing. They are doing it now because it’s cheaper to do so now versus post SLI.

If they wait until SLI effective and put a 321 base in SAN, they save the training cost associated with anyone at AS having to train from a 737 into an A321. Same vice versa. Right now opening the SAN base on the 737 side is zero training, other than the usual upgrade costs on the current 737 pilots where needed. And since a lot of guys live here, very minimal moving costs.
 
///AMG said:
Well at least the first million and a half or so is already paid off......you just need to do it again a couple times over :)
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Nah, we are staying LAX. It will be interesting to see how senior SAN ends up being. I think they easily have 140 CA, 110 FOs near driving distance to SAN.
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Nah, we are staying LAX. It will be interesting to see how senior SAN ends up being. I think they easily have 140 CA, 110 FOs near driving distance to SAN.
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Yeah id imagine it goes pretty senior. I'm not sure that this will translate into a clean reduction bid for SFO though. Maybe LA, since I imagine most of the senior folks who might want this are there (though I could see a few trickle in from across the system). But SFO will get jerked around to I dunno where.....maybe back up to SEA?
 
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