BA 747-400 crew question

[Surftheearth]

Hi all

I recently spoke to a pilot at BA and ask a question he couldn't answer cause he wasn't on this fleet. He pointed me here and advised me i may get silly replies but there are really nice guys on here aswell. So i decided to join and ask. So if any ba crew could anwser this question thanks. On a JFK rotation on day 1 you flew the first 747 out would you be scheduled to fly the first one back to the uk on day 2. I Know Ba have a mixed fleet on this route and day 1 may have 7 744 going out but coming bk on day 2 only have 5 so would you roll over to day 3 or even day 4 or get positioned back?

Thank you

[wiggy]

I suspect you haven't got a quick answer because it's kind of difficult to see the overall pattern unless you're prepared to wade through all the trip constructions for JFK on both the 744 and the 777..and life's too short.

Certainly (for Flight Crew) "first in, first out" happens the majority of the time but not always, and there's also a bit of positioning, no doubt to avoid long lay overs/slips..

[Hobo]

On a big operation like this, there may also be a planned JFK standby requirement for down route sickness or other disruption.

[wiggy]

On a big operation like this, there may also be a planned JFK standby requirement for down route sickness or other disruption.

FWIW there's no such requirement for this particular operation...BA Flight crew do not do standby downroute. In the case of JFK there are so many Flight crew slipping there that sickness/disruption would is handled by "je-jigging" in-situ crews' rosters, and/or positioning as a last resort.

[Surftheearth]

Thank you wiggy for your answer.

So all jfk trip would be max 3 days it wouldn't go in to the 4th day.

[wiggy]

So all jfk trip would be max 3 days it wouldn't go in to the 4th day.

Er no, as I said

"first in, first out" happens the majority of the time but not always

, my emphasis...


There are infrequent 4 day or even very very rarely 5 day JFKs. That might be due to a change in the 744/777 "ratio" on the route over a couple of days (e.g change from summer to winter timetable, or vice versa), or if some services are "dropped" on a particular day (as used to happen when very few people travelled over Christmas.. ).

Finally I'll belatedly I'll point out, because someone's bound to mention it, that there's also 2 day trip construction( early AM departure LHR, daylight flight out, night off, early AM departure JFK, daylight back, into LHR in the evening)