Originally Posted by
ScouseGeordie
Fewer stanby duties in the summer? Surely that’s when you need the cover - for when things start going wrong like ATC delays and so on. Without stanby’s how does the company recover the service?
ScouseGeordie - Aircrew are expensive assets so you can never have enough standby cover. These days Airlines in general have more standby's than "the good old days" because of the EU Comp rules. The best way to manage it however is give crews a big wad of cash to fly on their days off (which is cheaper than subchartering an aircraft)
Switched on Airlines like Thomson worked out many many years ago that a Pilot who sells his day off can cover morning, afternoon and night flights whereas if not you need 3 crew on standby then a few more to cover every "what if" scenario that the Airlines Commercial and Ops folk will come up with. #justsaying if Phil Ward is reading this...