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New Open Time System Delayed Another Month Until September for October

Open Time initially delayed until August for September

 

According to the Contract Implementation Schedule, Open Time (OT) was originally scheduled for implementation in July for the August bid month. AFA Alaska received notice in June that Open Time was delayed until August 15 for the September bid month. See the communication from June 13, 2015, “New Open Time Trading System Implementation Delay” for more information. You may access an electronic copy of that notice (that lists all the technical reasons for the first delay) here.

Open Time now subsequently delayed until September for October

 

Unfortunately, AFA received official notice from management yesterday that implementation of the new OT trading system will be delayed another month—until September for the October bid month. You may access an electronic copy of the most recent notice (that lists all the technical reasons for the delay) here. Therefore upcoming Open Time will commence on August 18th using the existing rules.

 

Alaska Airlines management and AFA do not want to go live with a new Open Time trading system that has the possibility of crashing not only Open Time but also electronic trip trading in general. Although this additional delay is a disappointing development, we all want the new Open Time system to be a success. The good news is that management reports being “very confident” that Open Time will be implemented in September for October. As a reminder, the trial period of the new Open Time trading system begins once the system is actually implemented.

 

* * *

 

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact one of your Local Executive Council (LEC) officers.

 

In Solidarity,

 

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Becky Strachan, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; MEC Grievance chairperson Jennifer Wise MacColl; and AFA Senior Staff Attorney Kimberley Chaput

Your Contract Committee – MEC President Jeffrey Peterson, Kristy Stratton, Lisa Pinkston, Jake Jones, Christina Frees and AFA Senior Staff Negotiator Paula Mastrangelo

7.29.15 OT Delay Letter to AFA

AFA Alaska

New Open Time Trading System Implementation Delay

Just when you thought implementation of the new contract was going (relatively) smoothly…

According to the Contract Implementation Schedule, Open Time was scheduled for implementation in July for the August bid month. Unfortunately, AFA received notice from management yesterday that implementation of the new Open Time trading system will be delayed at least one month.

 

You may access an electronic copy of the notice (that lists all the technical reasons for the delay) here.

 

Reasons why it is taking so long

AFA has participated in almost all of the implementation meetings and updates and we can assure you that management and Jeppesen (the provider of Maestro and eMaestro) have been working on updating the crew tracking and trading system ever since the contract ratified.  There are several reasons why it is taking so long to reprogram the system:

 

  • Alaska will begin transitioning to a new crew tracking system later next year but until then we have to manage to get along with our current system.

 

  • Maestro/eMaestro is antiquated and fragile. All parties are being cautious with any changes because there is concern that significant new programming will destabilize the system enough to completely crash it. For those of you who have been around long enough, can you imagine having to go back to email trades? Not good!

 

  • There are very few programmers left at Jeppesen who even work with the underlying framework of Maestro/eMaestro. Only two carriers use this system (one being Alaska). That means there are limited resources that can be allocated to reprogramming.

AFA and management believe it is prudent to wait another month

Alaska Airlines management and AFA do not want to go live with a new Open Time trading system that has the possibility of crashing not only Open Time but also electronic trip trading in general. Although this is a disappointing development, we want the new Open Time system to be a success. Therefore AFA and management believe it is prudent to wait another month in order to provide more time to properly debug the system. As a reminder, the trial period of the new Open Time trading system begins once the system is actually implemented.

 

* * *

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Becky Strachan, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow, Stephen Couckuyt; and MEC Scheduling chairperson Jake Jones

6.12.15 OT Delay letter to AFA

MEC 5B Logo

 

 

 

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