How Many Flights on a Typical Desk?
- Thread starter BRUSR_ONE
- Start date
autosave36
IROP Food tester. You're welcome.
Regionals tend to be higher on releases for sure. It also depends when you work. Everywhere ive been, AM's are bigger flight loads than pm's.
At the majors, ive found long haul desks have fewer flights than short ones. Last week i had a bunch of 45-90 minute flights and had 25-28 releases, this week i have 3 hour flights and 13-15 releases.
At the majors, ive found long haul desks have fewer flights than short ones. Last week i had a bunch of 45-90 minute flights and had 25-28 releases, this week i have 3 hour flights and 13-15 releases.
who'swho
Don't hesitate. Penetrate!
UPS has a point system in their CBA. My loose understanding of it... Flights are scored based on difficulty (ETOPS, redispatch, etc.) and if the total score on the desk exceeds an allotted amount laid out in the CBA then there is an override/penalty paid to the dispatcher.
Flagship_dxer
Penske Material
This is for a legacy major across all shifts. Some shifts do more releases and other shifts do more flight following. Domestic 60 to 70 flights. Latin America and Caribbian 25-30. Europe around 15. Pacific around 10.
Just for clarification, I think that is per DAY, right? I can't imagine 60-70 flights per SHIFT!
See MQ lol
who'swho
Don't hesitate. Penetrate!
Not entirely uncommon at the regional level. LOL
Pepwave1
Well-Known Member
NetJets…offered the union Flight Volume Pay…increased ops at least equals better pay.
Only time I know of that flight volume has ever been part of a contract at a regional-ish operation.
I Like IKE
Well-Known Member
As others have indicated, the 60-70 isn't outside the realm of possibility at regional, but I believe these are for the whole day at a mainline.
When I worked at PSA, there were days when some dispatchers had over 80 flights in a 10 hour shift. When I brought it up to management as the union rep, they acted like that wasn't excessive.
I work midnights at a mainline on a domestic desk. The flight number varies depending on how many red-eyes you have and which side of the country you desk covered. Last year, my desk was more on the western side. I had up to 5 red-eyes and 12-14 flights to work up for the morning. This year, my desk is pretty central with a couple transcons. I have 3 red-eyes and 24-28 flights to work up for the morning.
Some regionals have 60 on a 10 hour shift for one dispatcher????? Wow. I think 40 is a lot! It really is a high workload as I'm seeing now first hand. You've got to move on and stay ahead. You can't spend too much time on any one. It is so easy to get behind! I think that to stay sharp you've got to take a break, get up and move, take your eyes off a screen. I struggle sometimes trying to find the most efficient and fastest way to do these things. Like when I've got 3 flights due soon and 12 new tafs come out for flights I've already filed and I've got to look at those and make sure everybody's still legal.
Flagship_dxer
Penske Material
It is per day. However, there is only one start time for each shift and desks are generally set up geographically with transcons spread out over all the desks. Whether its releasing the flights or flight following, each shift domestically handles about 40-45 flights. On IROP days, its not uncommon for the midnight shift to come in and have 20+ airborne flights. All desks have very similar number of flights even though some desks have longer segments than others.
A big difference in workload when compared to the three international regions. There are not that many domestic lineholders in the top 250 seniority numbers. It largely goes junior. Each year sees the number of senior domestic dispatchers shrink. The good thing about it is that you dont have to be that senior to get a really good schedule with holidays and prime days off.
GroundPilot
Well-Known Member
JBU
28-31 morning/swing shifts
22-25 afternoon
22-25 overnight
28-31 morning/swing shifts
22-25 afternoon
22-25 overnight
One of our guys went to Southwest and those JetBlue numbers are very similar to what they have. It does seem like regionals or at least mine have more. I'm curious about others like Envoy, Mesa, Endeavor, etc. I guess this is kind of like a "dispatching bootcamp". It feels like a lot especially when many of those flights are more complex to work up.
GroundPilot
Well-Known Member
We have it split into regions (ie carib desk for DR and western international cities, one carib desk for PR and those southeast island cities. Transcon desks for norcal/sea/bzn/etc, desk for lax, phx, texas cities, etc) One desk can be a breeze when the weather is good and another can be hell if you have all of the storms there.
Bustedcropdusta
Well-Known Member
Average at the regional I previously worked at is about 45-50. If they had enough callouts though it wouldn't be unheard of to see that number push closer to 55. My PR was 62. My personal opinion is anything north of 45 and it gets harder to adequately flight follow.
Mainline_or_bust
Airplanes fly on PFM, Change my mind
If you can’t adequately flight follow then you’re task saturated and need to shed tasks until you’re not, period.
The problem is there’s too many A-Type Personality dispatchers in the regionals, and everyone would rather shame their coworkers for not being able to plan X number of flights instead of realizing the most important part of our job is flight following.
It’s not fixed in the regionals because when someone has ever said they’re over what they can handle the flights you can’t handle go to coworkers. Those coworkers shame and quite possible surpass the point of saturation without saying something, making the other dispatcher look weak.
gopherdx
Well-Known Member
This right here folks. THE most important part of our job is flight following. A flight on the ground waiting for paperwork will NEVER take precedence over a live flight with an issue, never.
F9DXER
Well-Known Member
One of the perks of being international qualified is the following - and yes it happened.
You put in for advanced OT on a day off, the award it to you.
Show up, find out you only have 2 flights on your desk. One gets delayed and thus it becomes the next shifts problem. The other, even though you work it up it, cancels. Thus you are just flight following the rest of your shift.
Life is good at times.
You put in for advanced OT on a day off, the award it to you.
Show up, find out you only have 2 flights on your desk. One gets delayed and thus it becomes the next shifts problem. The other, even though you work it up it, cancels. Thus you are just flight following the rest of your shift.
Life is good at times.
