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?
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