Reserve is something else that needs to be looked at. A 28 day block is tough on your personal life. I believe BALPA and BA are thinking of introducing shorter blocks in addition to the current blocks to give people a bit of a choice. Without moaning about part timers, a lot of them haven’t done reserve for years if the computer is physically unable to insert a reserve period into their roster without clashing with their part time weeks. That to me doesn’t seem fair and would spread out the reserve duties a bit if it was fixed.
You can probably expect to see some shorter Reserve periods before much longer in Shorthaul. There is a suggestion that some 28 day periods (with 7 Fixed Days Off) will be retained as some people like the big block of days off. The intent is to bring shorter reserves onto Longhaul as well but that is a work in progress still, given that the longest longhaul trips is 9 days. I would expect to see shorter periods there too eventually, although perhaps ten or fourteen days (with pro-rated FDOs) in addition to the current format. What longhaul really needs though is reserve with two Fixed Days Off at the end to stop Current Ops taking the mick...