Past experience has shown that you shouldn’t do both ports in the same roster for fatigue reasons.
I’m not sure it’s that simple. The end of one roster is followed immediately by the beginning of the next. Surely no one wants to be tied to only-east or only-west ULH flying.
I suspect what you’re really getting at is a sensible ‘interval’ between any series of east-bound ULH which follows a series of west-bound ULH or vice versa?
Another possibility, which may require lateral thinking wrt 5th freedoms, is “one-way” scheduling around the world. Eg;
- SYD-JFK-LHR-SYD over about ten days, or
- SYD-LHR-JFK-SYD in similar time.
Thus a pattern of ULH-Medium distance (even paxing?)-ULH may be a way of keeping pilots in a predictable, repeatable and consistent routine of ‘future duties preparedness’ from the time they start work in their home port.
Just thinking aloud....
