Originally Posted by
Twiglet1
Noel - The CAA had plenty of meeting's in the run up with the major AOC's (and BALPA were there) and most of them had scheduling agreements managing the excesses, or their FRMS managed it. I personally don't know any AOC's that work 7 E/L/N to the excess of EU FTL - I stand to be corrected however. In my experience the biggest change to Pilots with EU FTL is whereas under CAP371 if they sold days off they would likely get these days off replaced to manage the 7/14/28/84 day limits - not the case now with the ERRP.
Twiglet1, About your comment "... most of them had scheduling agreements managing the excesses, or their FRMS managed it", 'most' is a long way from 'all' and FRMSs vary significantly, where the 'cheapest off the shelf' could be almost irrelevant to airline operations. The idea of FTLs is that
the FTLS are the ultimate protection against Fatigue, not that something that could be commercially influenced (scheduling agreements or FRMSs) are having to be relied on as the ultimate protection. (About the 'work 7' days; I have done so under EASA FTLs: 7 consecutive days work totalling 45 hrs 30 mins duty, but with nearly 180 hrs free of duty before that and about the same after, as I have a "Ts&Cs protection" against the long-term extremes of EASA's FTLs)
What is worrying is that (from
wiggy's comment) it appears that BA Short Haul has poor Ts&Cs/scheduling agreement protection against EASA's 'Fatigue Target Limits'. I would see that as a bigger concern than pay -- unless higher pay is a way of being able to afford part-time work to be able to create one's own protection from those dreadful FTLs.
As far as the 'collateral damage' that
Plastic787 mentions, my travel arrangements are all to avoid using BA in favour of other airlines that provide that provide a nicer and more reliable service: When flying on holiday out of LHR I do not use BA short-haul to connect there as I have seen far too often where BA cancels their short-hauls whenever there are any problems at LHR. BA's handling of this present situation has firmed up my feelings on that and I am sure will taint the views of others, so maybe that 'collateral damage' is a bigger damage than BA management perceive?
I am not too sure that this will help other Pilots in the industry in general: If BA management make it an unattractive place to work then Pilots will not be so keen to move there which will mean that other airlines will not have the same worry regarding Pilots moving on, with the effect that that has on Ts&Cs.