Originally Posted by
Check Airman
I wouldn't say that. It's my understanding that you guys don't usually do overnights on narrowbodies. I find that very appealing. At most airlines in the US, that kind of flying is very senior. Many people will bypass upgrading to captain or larger airplane in order to enjoy being home every night.
I also think commuting is less prevalent across the ocean. That's immensely stressful.
It depends. As sonicbum has mentioned it is quite common in legacy carriers to be on the road for a few days, between 2 and 6 on narrowbodies and up to 15 days on widebodies. But yes, LCCs usually have a multibase strategy and try to plan without layovers as much as possible. And i honestly didn't know the difference until i switched from legacy to lcc. Now i jump on my bike, cycle to the airport, fly a few hours, cycle back and enjoy my own life at home. Whereas before i always had to pack my suitcase, get it to the airport, sleep in horrible hotels if sleeping is possible at all and usually do a shift pattern change during every rotation (early to late or late to early). Of course a fixed roster pattern, which is quite common in LCCs, does help a lot too for quality of life. The difference is of course hub based traffic vs pure point to point connections.
Commuting is not as easy on this side of the atlantic. That said, it is still done a lot. However, as many options include paying for the fun of it there is not only the loss in quality of life to consider, but also the financial implications that effectively reduce your take home pay, even if it is tax deductible.