PBS TM Overview

Topics  PBS – General Concepts  Scheduling Terms  Bid Options  System Processing

PBS – General Concepts  PBS (Preferential Bidding System) - a system that builds individualized crew schedules based on bids that Crewmembers submit specifying their “preferences” (both likes and dislikes) for flying, specific trips, and days off. The Navtech System works use a heuristic algorithm that uses a pairing pool that is restricted by negative bid with lines constructed with positive award pairings bids.

PBS – General Concepts  CATEGORY – a combination of a Crewmember’s base and position (equipment and seat) Example: LAX M80 FO  REDUCED BLOCK – A separate credit window for crewmembers that require/qualify for a lower monthly schedule. - Example: Part time crewmembers  SHADOW BIDDER – a bidder on an entire month’s worth of absences that will have a line constructed for pay purposes only. The same trip cannot be awarded to multiple Shadow Bidders

PBS – Scheduling Terms  PAIRING – (Trip/Rotation) A series of flights over one or more days that contains legal rest, flight duties and originates and terminates in a crew base.  BIDS – The preferences of a crewmember for items such as work patterns, types of duties, and days or times of days off.  BID MONTH – the month or duration of days in which a crewmember’s schedule is being built. (January 31 st to March 1 st ).

PBS – Scheduling Terms  CARRY-IN – trips that start in the previous month and end in the current month  HISTORY – flight duties from a previous month that may affect maximum duty or flight times in a given period of time in the current bid month  ABSENCES – items precluding a bidder from being available for flying duties at any particular time. Absences include vacation, maternity leave, training, union duties, etc.

PBS – Scheduling Terms  STACKS a situation that results when there are too many pairings for the bidders that remain. Stacks may result from spikes in the flight schedule during a given period or an abnormally high number of requests for the same day off such as holidays.  UNSTACKING – the process of ensuring that the pairings are adequately covered by assigning flying duties to crew members potentially creating a situation in which bids were denied in order to meet work coverage requirements.

What Is PBS? + Crew Pairings + History & Carry-in & Pre-Awards (Absences and Training) + Individual Crew Member Preferences (Bids) + Legality Rules + Scheduling Rules/Agreement = Unique Lines of Flying (includes a detailed Reasons Report)

Bid Preferences  It is important to understand the difference between positive and negative bid preferences when constructing your bids. Negative Bids = Prefer Off and Avoid Pairings Positive Bids = Award Pairings  Negative bids remove pairings from the available pairing pool, while positive bids take pairings from the available pool and add them to your block.

Bid Options There are five basic bid options:  SET CONDITION – a bid that constrains how an entire crew member’s line is constructed  PREFER OFF – (negative) days of the week, dates or ranges of dates, and times of the day that the crew member desires to be free from duty  AVOID PAIRINGS – (negative) things that the Crewmember desires not to do  AWARD PAIRINGS – (positive) things the Crewmember prefers  INSTRUCTION – instructions for the system used by the crew member to create more complex bids in order to redirect the system if required

Set Condition - Bids A Set Condition bid preference tells the system something about your block, and usually sets a global condition of some type, such as:  Maximum Credit, tells the system to award you a block closest to the maximum allowed credit as possible.  Minimum Credit, tells the system to award you a block within the minimum credit window.  Minimum Base Layover, tells the system to create a block that provides a minimum amount of layover time at your base.  Pattern, tells the system to create a block that follows a pattern of days on and days off. You can specify a range of days on, and a minimum number of days off between duty periods.  Maximum Days On, tells the system to award you a block of days on duty in between days off.  Minimum Days Off, tells the system to award you a block of days off in between days on duty.

Prefer Off - Bids  Prefer Off bid preferences request dates or days off during the bid period. You can select days of the week, specific dates or ranges of dates, and times of day that you want to be free of duty. Prefer Off bid preferences exclude pairings from consideration. All Prefer Off bids can be modified with an “All or Nothing” qualifier, an “Else Reserve” qualifier, or a “Reverse Priority” qualifier.

AVOID / AWARD - Bids  Aircraft Type – bid for or avoid pairings operated on a specific aircraft type only.  Average Daily Credit – bid for or avoid pairings with an average daily credit greater than or less than a specific amount, or within or outside a range bid for or avoid pairings with an average daily credit greater than or less than a specific amount, or within or outside a range.  Carry Out – bid for or avoid pairings extending into the next bid period by a specific number of days.

AVOID / AWARD - Bids  Deadheads – bid for or avoid pairings that contain a number of deadhead legs greater than, equal to, or less than a specific number, or within or outside a range.  Depart on Dates – bid for or avoid pairings with a check-in time that starts within or outside a specified date range.  Depart on Time Range – bid for or avoid pairings with a check-in time that starts within or outside a specified time range.

AVOID / AWARD - Bids  Duty Duration – bid for or avoid pairings with a duty duration greater than or less than a specific amount, or within or outside a range.  Duty Legs – bid for pairings where every duty day contains a number of duty legs greater than, equal to, or less than a specific number, or within or outside a range.  Duty On – bid for or avoid pairings using your base station date and time information, rather than the local station date and time.  Employee Number – bid for or avoid flying with a specific senior crewmember.

AVOID / AWARD - Bids  Enroute Check-In – bid for or avoid pairings with an Enroute Check-In Time after, before or exactly on a specific time, or within a range.  Enroute Check-Out – bid for or avoid pairings with an Enroute Check-Out Time after, before or exactly on a specific time, or within a range.  Flight Number – bid for or avoid pairings with an flight number.  Landings In – bid for or avoid landings in a specific station or stations.  Layovers – bid for or avoid layovers in a specific station, or layovers with a specific duration.

AVOID / AWARD - Bids  Pairing Check-In – bid for or avoid pairings with a check-in time after, before, or at a specific time, or within or outside a time range.  Pairing Check-Out– bid for or avoid pairings with a check-out time after, before, or at a specific time, or within or outside a time range.  Pairing Credit – bid for or avoid pairings with a total credit greater than or less than a specific amount, or within or outside a range.

AVOID / AWARD - Bids  Pairing Length – bid for or avoid pairings with a specific duration, or a duration range, pairing length is measured in calendar days.  Pairing Number – bid for or avoid specific pairing numbers, or pairing numbers greater than or less than a specific number, or pairing numbers within or outside a range.  Redeyes – bid for or avoid pairings that are classified as Redeyes.  Sit Length – bid for or avoid pairings with time on the ground between legs (during any duty period) that is greater than or less than a specific amount, or within or outside a range.

AVOID / AWARD - Bids  Stand-Up (CDO) – bid for or avoid pairings that are classified as Stand-up or a Continuous Duty Overnight.  Time Away From Base – bid for or avoid pairings with a time away from base greater than or less than a specific amount, or within or outside a range.

AVOID / AWARD & CONDITIONS  All AVOID and AWARD bids can be modified using a condition. The following are supported conditions: IF - allows the user to specify any additional AVOID/AWARD subtype as a condition to the first.  E.g. AWARD DAY TRIPS 2 IF CHECK OUT TIME < 18:00L IF LAYOVERS IN MCO IF with EMPLOYEE

AWARD - LIMIT CONDITION  All Award Bids can be qualified with add a limit, or cap, to the number of pairings awarded based on a single Award Pairings bid preference example.  E.g. AWARD DAY TRIPS 2 IF CHECK OUT TIME < 18:00L IF LAYOVERS IN MCO IF with EMPLOYEE Limit 2 The system will only award 2 pairings that meet all of the above criteria.

AWARD – FOLLOWED BY CONDITION  Followed By lets you link Award Pairings bid preferences in a series. The system tries to find back to back pairings over multiple days that match the linked bid preferences, with minimum required rest between duty periods.  E.g. AWARD DAY TRIPS 1 IF CHECK OUT TIME 12:00L A Followed By bid preference is an all or nothing bid preference.

INSTRUCTION INSTRUCTION bid request provides special instructions to redirect Navtech PBS TM to change or remove restrictions when processing the bid  FORGET directs Navtech PBS TM to remove a specific Negative request from consideration during the bid process  REDO FROM must be used in conjunction with the FORGET request. REDO FROM instructs Navtech PBS TM to return to a specific positive bid request and start processing your bid again  CLEAR SKEDULE & START NEXT instructs the system to wipe away their current bid and trips awarded so far and to process a new set of bids

Consecutive Reserve  In the Consecutive Reserve system, the detail of the lines of crewmembers on reserve will be decided after all of the details of all of the trip lines have been finalized.  During the processing of trip lines, crewmembers will be identified simply as “on reserve.” After the trip schedule is completed, the details of the reserve lines will be decided through the subsequent processing of reserve lines.

Concurrent Reserve  In the Concurrent Reserve system, the detail of the lines of crewmembers on reserve will be decided at the same time as the detail of the lines of crewmembers with trip lines.

BIDDING TABS Maintain the following bids:  Current line bid (includes Reserve bids)  Default line bid (includes Reserve bids) This bid gets used if the bidder does not submit a monthly bid for whatever reason Typically specify items that would not change from month to month

Additional Features  Pairings Filtering – allows the crewmember to request to view specific trip types. Using drop down keys you can filter trips by Length (days), Credit, TAFB, Layover Stations, Landing Cities, Check-in, Check-out, etc.  Copy & Paste Bids – allows the bidder to copy previous months bid entries, or default bid entries, into the current months bid. This prevents the crewmember from having to retype the same bids each month.

System Processing Navtech PBS TM  Is a PRIORITY based PBS – your first preference is more important than your second, if more than one choice is on a line then it awards starting from left to right  Builds one crew member’s line at a time using their bids and potential trip combinations  Stops as soon as you are in the credit window or over the Target Threshold depending on how you have bid and how the run parameters are set.  Will not add a trip to your line that conflicts with any pre-awarded item including carry-in.

System Processing  Line Construction When Navtech PBS TM starts building your line it considers all pairings as still being available in the trip pool. Even those pairings that are already awarded might be able to be swapped First Navtech PBS TM removes pairings that conflict with any pre-awarded absences and carry-in as there is no way that these trips will be awarded to you Next Navtech PBS TM looks at your first bid.

System Processing  Line Construction PREFER OFF and AVOID (negative bids) throw potential trips out of the pairing (trip) pool as they are instructions as to what you do not like AWARD (positive bids) bids are the only bids that actually put trips on your schedule. This is why it is referred to as a positive bid request. INSTRUCTION bid requests provide special instructions to redirect Navtech PBS TM to change or remove restrictions when processing the bid. AWARD PAIRINGS this is always the final item on your bid requests. It tells Navtech PBS TM to find any remaining trips in the trip pool that can be assigned to get you in the credit window without denying any of your requests.

Bid Logic Example

PBS was able to create a legal line that is over the threshold.

System Generated Award Trips

System Processing  Will Shuffle when required to remove pairings that could be awarded to your line but that have constrained your pairings availability, credit availability and days available such that your line cannot be completed. Shuffling removes these pairings so that others can be awarded to either complete your line or get you over the threshold before going into denial mode.

Shuffle

Pull for shuffle

Shuffle

System Processing  The system will enter Denial Mode if it has to complete your line by denying negative bid requests (Prefer Off and Avoid) in reverse order of priority to allow more trips to be brought back into the available pool of potential trips that can be added to your line

Denial Mode

Denial Mode: Completion Attempt 2 PBS starts over again with preference 4 denied.

PBS eliminates Saturday trips. Denial Mode: Completion Attempt 2

Reserve System Processing  The system will process Reserve bids when instructed to do so by the crewmember using an “Else Next” an “Else Reserve” or a “Start Reserve” command.  In the Consecutive Reserve system, the detail of the lines of crewmembers on reserve will be decided after all of the details of all of the trip lines have been finalized.  During the processing of trip lines, crewmembers will be identified simply as “on reserve.” After the trip schedule is completed, the details of the reserve lines will be decided through the subsequent processing of reserve lines.

Reserve Processing

Online Demonstration