Southwest weighs placing crew base in Las Vegas

Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2001 | 10:59 a.m.

For many working airline pilots and flight attendants, the end of the day means a trip to a hotel arranged for by their airlines.

Flight crews are often on the road, bunking down in whatever city they end up in after eight hours or so of flying. They bid their trips weeks in advance and spend three or more days on the road before making it back to their home bases.

But for the airline with the largest number of commercial flights at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, that routine could change next year.

Southwest Airlines is considering placing pilot and flight attendant bases in Las Vegas, a move that would boost the city's economy because of the high salaries pilots make -- typically $120,000 -- and because it could nearly double the number of Southwest employees living in the city.

"The airline is potentially going to open another pilot base in 2002 and Las Vegas is one of about five cities they're looking at," said Wayne Stamps, vice president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, Dallas.

A study is expected to be completed later this year. The company earlier this month opened bases for 350 pilots and 440 flight attendants in Orlando, Fla. When fully staffed, that base is expected to expand to 750 pilots and 900 flight attendants.

Company officials say Las Vegas is among the cities under study for the airline's next base because of the 169 daily flights to 42 nonstop destinations from Las Vegas offered by the airline, which uses 16 McCarran gates.

Some Southwest sources say Las Vegas is high on the airline's list because of the city's growth; others are saying Las Vegas won't get bases because it isn't economically feasible. The official corporate line Southwest officials give is that they don't disclose the company's future plans.

By number of flights, Las Vegas is the second-largest city for Southwest behind Phoenix. Of the seven cities with the most Southwest flights, only Las Vegas doesn't have crew bases.

Presently, there are about 800 Southwest employees working in Las Vegas. A company spokeswoman said it would be hard to determine how many pilots and flight attendants would move to Las Vegas if it became a base, since many flight crews already live in Las Vegas and either start their work day in Las Vegas or commute to work.

In the meantime Southwest is embarking on a growth plan in Las Vegas, building training rooms, lounges, offices and expanding maintenance areas on the ground floor of the C gate terminal.

Vic Thompson of Vic Thompson Co., Las Vegas, said his company is completing work in a part of the airport most passengers never see. Southwest's expansion at McCarran will help accommodate an additional 25 to 30 flights next year.

As Southwest expands nationwide as it takes delivery of new planes from Boeing, Las Vegas gets a good share because of its popularity as a resort destination. Southwest expects to get 52 new Boeing 737 jets and retire seven old planes by the end of 2002.

With about 200 flights a day in the future at McCarran and more than 12 flight crews overnighting in Las Vegas every night, it could become economically feasible for Southwest to consider establishing a Las Vegas base. Experts say Southwest hasn't set up a base sooner because Las Vegas is one of the few places where it can get inexpensive hotel rooms.

Currently, 12 Southwest planes end their days and are parked overnight at McCarran. In addition to the five crew members on each of those flights, some pilots and flight attendants who start the day flying early-morning routes end their days in the late afternoon and can overnight here, where their work day ends.

About 50 Southwest maintenance workers are stationed at McCarran and service the 12 planes that are parked overnight in Las Vegas.

Locally based workers do everything but the heaviest of maintenance, including inspections and light repairs of landing gear, flaps, rudders, oxygen systems, lighting and auxiliary power units, internal controls and hydraulic and emergency lighting systems.

They also watch for fuel leaks, dents, cracks and worn tires on the planes that come in.

Southwest spokeswoman Kristin Nelson said it would take about six to nine months to open a base once an announcement has been made. She said an average pilot and flight attendant base would require construction of a 16,000-square-foot office for training rooms, lounges and desks.

Pilots and flight attendants typically check in at their bases, review company information, catch up on correspondence and use computers to bid for their schedules.

Nelson said the airline has no statistics showing what the economic impact of a base is on a community.

While Las Vegas could get an economic boost with the addition of more employees with high salaries and their families, not everyone would be happy if the city becomes Southwest's eighth flight crew base.

Southwest normally has a competitive bid process for hotel rooms for crews, guaranteeing to use a certain number of rooms every night. Southwest flight crews have stayed in a number of properties over the years -- Alexis Park, Circus Circus, the Debbie Reynolds hotel-casino and the Maxim, among them.

Currently, crews stay at the 512-suite Polo Towers. a nongaming property with several timeshare units on the Strip.

Stephen Cloobeck, president of Diamond Resorts International, which owns Polo Towers, said Southwest's contract represents $1 million in revenue a year for his company. He would not disclose how many rooms Southwest rents every night.

Cloobeck said he was told by airline executives that Southwest isn't planning crew bases anytime soon, but even if they are, he said his sales department would find other corporate accounts to fill the rooms.

"We'd probably try to rent our rooms to another airline," Cloobeck said. "We'd find somebody else who would even pay more ... we have the nicest rooms in the city."

Southwest employees who already work in Las Vegas also aren't too enthusiastic about adding a crew base.

The reason: More employees mean more competition for seats when it comes to free standby travel, one of the perks of working for an airline.