Horizon To Uproot 48 Spokane Workers Pilots, Attendants Based Here Must Move To Seattle, Portland

Nearly 50 Horizon Airlines pilots and flight attendants based in Spokane will be reassigned next year to Seattle or Portland as part of a costsaving effort.

The move involves Horizon closing its Spokane “flight crew domicile,” said spokeswoman Cheryl Temple.

The Spokane domicile - or crew base - includes 26 Horizon pilots and 22 attendants.

Those workers live in Spokane and start their work schedules here, flying morning commuter trips to Seattle, Portland, Montana, Salt Lake and Canada.

The crew-deployment measure has no impact on the number of Horizon flights here, airline officials said.

The airline this week told the Spokane-based pilots and attendants that it’s more efficient to relocate them to either Portland or Seattle.

“Regulations on crew rests and other personnel changes make it uneconomical to have a domicile (in Spokane),” said Dan Russo, a Horizon Airline spokesman.

The Spokane crew base will close in July.

Russo said the change has no impact on about 130 other full- and part-time Horizon workers handling baggage, ticketing passengers and maintaining aircraft.

It’s not clear how many of the 48 Spokane-based pilots and attendants will actually relocate, since Horizon allows workers to commute by air from their home cities to their base, added Russo.

In addition to Seattle or Portland, some of the Horizon workers might choose to relocate to Boise, which has a domicile of 150 pilots and attendants. But Boise openings will be limited, while Horizon’s Seattle and Portland crew bases will expand in the next few years.

One Spokane Horizon pilot said he and several others moved to Spokane in the past year and don’t want to relocate.

“Me and others feel the airline should compensate us,” said Mike Gardner, who moved to Spokane earlier this year from Seattle.

Gardner said he prefers to live in Spokane, but knows that commuting often to the West Side would complicate his life.

“But in my case, if they don’t offer me compensation, I’m leaning toward working at another carrier,” he said Friday.

The key reason for the relocation is that airline pilots and crews are required to have a minimum number of rest breaks and days off during their monthly schedules, said Russo.

Horizon and other airlines have decided it’s easier to find backup or reserve flight crews by having more workers based in key cities, he said.

After July, Horizon crew members who finish flights in Spokane will stay in hotels, just as crews from other airlines do, said Russo.