Aircrew working hours restriction...

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Member for

18 years 6 months

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Can anyone tell me the number of hours that flight-deck crew and cabin crew are legally permitted to work each month, and how airlines schedule the crew to work?

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Member for

20 years 8 months

Posts: 1,381

I'm not perfectly sure, but the figure 900 flying hours per year seems to stick in my mind as the maximum legal number of hours that a pilot can fly commercial aircraft. i think i got the figure from the Dispatches programme about Ryanair, which said that Ryr tends to take all its pilots right to the maximum number of legal hours, occasionally overworking them too much.

As for scheduling, i believe that the big airlines work from bespoke, in-house computer packages that sort out schedules for pilots (and i'm assuming cabin crew as well). i believe that, for example, Emirates has a pool of flights that it offers to its crew members, and pilots choose the routes that they want to fly on a first come first served basis, and then the pilots are given their schedules.

someone with more knowledge will be able to give more info

hope that helps

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 1,953

First, important to realise that there is a difference between working hours and flying hours.

There are rules associated with the maximum length of each duty period (which will vary according to start time, number of sectors flown, and whether the crew member is acclimitised to local time or not), and for the rest period following each duty and for days off following several days duty. Then there are are also rules covering the number of flying hours that may be operated over seven days (rolling), 28 days (again, rolling) and annually. The 900 hours quoted above is flying hours, not duty hours.

There are a number of specialist computer based air crew scheduling systems on the market - normal staff rostering systems will do not support the complexity of air crew scheduling. Some airlines just allocate work to crews usually trying to allocated it fairly and in a balanced way, whilst others operate bid systems where crews can bid on specific work which is then allocated according to seniority.

Andy

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 1,953

Can anyone tell me the number of hours that flight-deck crew and cabin crew are legally permitted to work each month, and how airlines schedule the crew to work?

To answer the actual question, there is no limit on working hours in a month. There are limits on FLYING hours, but beyond the constraints that minimum legal rest in between duties and minimum days off impose, there is no limit on the number of duty hours.

Andy

Member for

19 years 1 month

Posts: 192

There are also limits on duty hours too. Have a look at the CAA website and type CAP371 into their search facility and it will tell you all the answers you are looking for. Office workers get more time off than us these days!

Member for

18 years 6 months

Posts: 2,343

First, important to realise that there is a difference between working hours and flying hours.

Ah, I apologise, I should of made it clearer at the start - I did in fact mean flying hours.

There are rules associated with the maximum length of each duty period (which will vary according to start time, number of sectors flown, and whether the crew member is acclimitised to local time or not), and for the rest period following each duty and for days off following several days duty. Then there are are also rules covering the number of flying hours that may be operated over seven days (rolling), 28 days (again, rolling) and annually. The 900 hours quoted above is flying hours, not duty hours.

Thanks for the in-depth info, very much appreciated. One further question though, is the 900hrs figure for pilots or cabin crew? Is there a difference between the number of hours a pilot can work, and the number of hours cabin staff can work.

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 1,953

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2004/20040756.htmThis might be what you're looking for.

Hmmm! The working time directive for civil aviation is new since I was last involved with airline crew scheduling. Interesting. The rules for annual working time limits and number of rest days didn't used to appear in CAP371 or the airline's flight time limitations scheme.

CAP371 in fact goes into more depth on restrictions on duty periods, etc. In fact, for anyone desperate to understand aircrew work regulations the following is the definitive guide:

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP371.PDF

Wow! Looking through that brings back some memories!

There are similar but slightly less restrictive rules for cabin crew. I can't remember the details, but the document linked above will provide the answers if you're desperate to know exactly what they are.

FWIW, the absolute limits on flying hours (in 28 days and in a year) for flight deck crew are detailed in section 21 starting on page 13.

Andy