It doesn't sound too bad to me, correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not sure whether I've understood the new regulations correctly. Here's my take:
Good stuff:
- Mandatory day off with two local nights after every far east flight, this is a huge improvement as the worst thing about the rosters are the back to back far easts which are detrimental to our health and family life. I think the rosters will become more stable as the SBY offers much less flexibility for night flights out of Doha. Also less double offs downroute as they will require more off days at home. Less cargo mess.
- Mandatory 2 days off with 3 local nights after the above mentioned 3 man far wests. Before, it was just rest time equal to previous FDP. IMO a huge improvement except for less rest inflight but I don't mind. I'll gladly do 1 hour extra of controlled rest and have more off days at home.
- Less deadheading for IRP, as you can go 3 guys ut and 3 guys home more often instead of 4/3. More hours in the book and better salary.
- More rest after long cargo patterns with big time zone difference. Might turn into some form of commuting option.
- More logging of stick hours ie. less factoring of hours. For example: Two US flights will give around 40 factored hours instead of 30 per month (120 hours of difference per year provided 2 long flights per month on average).
Bad stuff:
- 3 man operation, less rest inflight. Flights
to America won't be much harder but the
return is not gonna be an easy one. The rest split for the return has to be decided at the office so everyone can arrange their naps accordingly for the layover. I try not to go there anyway
who likes non SI measurements and to tip everyone anyways?
- With more off days given because of mandatory rest, I'm not sure whether the golden offs will continue as it is not in the contract. Hopefully this will make incentive for them to start giving the commuting guys commuting contracts.
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Possibly 3 man return flights to Europe instead of layovers. Not sure whether these will give mandatory days off after returning since the time difference is small. Having dinner in Spain, Paris and Brussels is nice!
My only worry is losing the block OFFs, other than that I think these new rules will be positive for our family life, less fatigue and health.