Three major concepts.
When choosing crew bases, various factors must be considered and balanced against each other. Three concepts have emerged in the industry:
- Centralized base concept. All crews are stationed at a few but major bases, such as the hubs of the airline. Mainly the crews go on multi-day round trips.
- Decentralized base concept. The crews are distributed to various departure locations of the airline. This model makes sense in decentralized and bidirectional traffic. The crews usually sleep at home.
- Open base concept. The crews are free, within certain rules, to base themselves at an airport of their choice. This concept is especially popular in business aviation. Background are the unsteady locations of the aircraft. The crews usually go to multi-day to several-week rounds.
In addition, another model exists in theory:
- Zone model. According to this model, different zones are defined around specific airports, within which the airports can be reached. Pilots and flight attendants who live in a closer zone will benefit from more point-to-point services and local overnight stays, while the number of overnight stays and travel days in the more distant zones will increase. Virtual places of residence can also be granted in this model.
What is good today need not be good tomorrow.
When evaluating the models, both the operational benefit and the labor law framework must be taken into account. The latter are different from country to country. Basically, it can be said that the path from the central to the decentralized or open base concept is simpler. Often, however, the opposite can be the economically more interesting way. The decentralized concept can offer advantages, especially during periods of growth: the different requirements at each station from season to season can be optimized with newly hired staff and upgraders, which can be re-based as needed. However, if growth stagnates, the efficiency of operational planning threatens to decline and costs rise. Consolidating this condition can be challenging. In particular, when in addition to labor law issues also company political and union obstacles are added.
Sustainable concepts.
GMP supports you in the development of the ideal concept for your company as well as in the transfer of one concept to another. We help you develop base concepts that will accommodate both the growth and maturity phases of your business.
