Several weeks ago, United Airlines revealed internally that it would open two new flight attendant bases in the near future. We’ve now learned the details of where these bases will be, and I’m kind of caught off guard by them… especially one! I’m curious if anyone has any insights or theories.
United reveals its two newest flight attendant bases
Airlines have flight attendant bases at certain airports. While lots of flight attendants choose to commute, the idea is that flight attendants typically start and their trips at their base. These bases are important, since there will also often be reserve flight attendants there on standby, in case they need to fill in for someone else, to keep the operation moving.
As things currently stand, United has roughly a dozen flight attendant bases. There are bases at all the carrier’s hubs, and also in places like Guam (GUM) and London (LHR), which are more focus cities than hubs. There are also bases in places like Boston (BOS) and Honolulu (HNL), reflecting the amount of service the airline has there.
Anyway, JonNYC reports on how United has just revealed its two newest flight attendant bases, and they’re in Dallas (DFW) and Sacramento (SMF).
Flight attendants can bid on where they want to be based, and then they’re selected based on seniority. So I imagine that some flight attendants who live in those cities may be happy about this. For that matter, many new hire flight attendants may end up at these bases, as they really have no say over where they’re based. It would be rather odd to be hired as a United flight attendant, only to end up working out of Dallas, no?
Does anyone understand the logic for these bases?
It’s not too hard to figure out why airlines have flight attendant bases at their hubs… that’s obvious. My assumption would be that otherwise airlines select these based on the amount of service they have out of there, and also based on geographic diversity, to some extent, in terms of easily being able to get a flight attendant to a nearby airport, in case a reserve is needed.
So I have to say, the Dallas base sure caught me off guard. Dallas is of course a fortress hub for American, and United has a relatively small presence there. Now, United CEO Scott Kirby does live in Dallas, and commutes to Chicago sometimes. However, he reportedly typically does that on American, since the airline has more flights in the market, and he has unlimited first class travel privileges on the carrier.
I don’t want to come up with any conspiracy theories. I don’t think the logic here is that:
- United wants to significantly build its presence in Dallas, since that doesn’t make much sense
- Kirby just wants better reliability at his home airport, since he usually flies American anyway
Still, I’m not sure I actually have a theory here either? It doesn’t seem like Dallas ranks among United’s most served airports without a flight attendant base, so any guesses here?
Bottom line
United Airlines is opening two new flight attendant bases, in Dallas and Sacramento. Ultimately this doesn’t directly impact passengers, though it’s still interesting to see where airlines decide to open these. We had known two new bases were coming, and I wouldn’t have expected these to be the two airports to get them. The Dallas one is particularly interesting to me.
What do you make of United’s newest flight attendant bases?
The base locations are solely based on staffing needs. In both of these cases, these are satellites of IAH and SFO. It helps build in redundancy and additional flexibility.
This has nothing to do with Kriby's home or American Airlines.
DFW is the fourth largest metro area in the US, on track to overtake Chicago and become third. Lots of FAs probably live there because their partners or family live there. Doubt there’s much more to it than that.
With Dallas, maybe a combination of "it's the largest U.S. metroplex without a base at the moment, so maybe the hiring opportunity or demand is there" + maybe we can more easily poach WN/AA employees if the opportunity down the road demands it.
For Sacramento, a solution for the HCOL in LAX/SFO/San Diego but still maintaining physical presence on the West Coast without a lengthier commute in from PHX/Vegas.
“Time to collect on those inheritance taxes!” —Scott probably.
I’m actually shocked you find this shocking, Ben.
These are basically satellite bases. DFW & IAH, SMF & SFO. AUS is also a satellite base for UA to IAH.
AA also does this with RDU & CLT.
Not sure why this is surprising. DFW may not be a hub but it's a huge metro area while SMF is a cheaper place to live and commute to SFO. Better have bases where FAs actually live than have them commute and risk not showing up to work because they don't make it on the flight…
Flight attendants bases have less to do with the airlines level of service and more to do with airlines trying to make life a bit more convenient for flight attendants. United Airlines has satellite bases in SAN, MCO, FLL, TPA, AUS, PHX. None of these airports except for MCO are focus cities for United. What these cities have are large numbers of United FAs' who live there and United is trying to make their lives...
Flight attendants bases have less to do with the airlines level of service and more to do with airlines trying to make life a bit more convenient for flight attendants. United Airlines has satellite bases in SAN, MCO, FLL, TPA, AUS, PHX. None of these airports except for MCO are focus cities for United. What these cities have are large numbers of United FAs' who live there and United is trying to make their lives easier by allowing those based there to start and end their trips closer to home. Take Delta as another example they have flight attendant satellite bases in RDU, TPA, FLL, MCO, DFW, AUS, PDX, SFO, PHX and LAS. Of those MCO could be considered a focus city for Delta and AUS is a focus city for Delta yet they have all these other bases where they allow FA's who are base there to start and end their trips closer to home.
Not every FA can pick up and move to a hub and I get it commuting is a choice but I also think its good to see airlines acknowledge how tough commuting can be and how disruptive to the operation it can be when crew members have to call out because they can't get on a commuting flight.
I don't understand the bases in Eureka , Calif. or Council Bluffs , Iowa .