Qatar Fatigue Concerns
With the recent COVID outbreak a lots of airline had to find a way to survive.
Some put their crew on unpaid leave, some had to made redundancy, some went bankrupt.
Some on the other hand took COVID as a chance/an excuse to abuse their employees and the regulations.
Very few took it as far as Qatar Airways.
I don't want repeat what was said already (on a thread that, for some reason, is now closed) about the salary, the cuts, the LOL etc…
There is something that is, for me, a much bigger concern with QR, it's the level of crew fatigue.
Crew are exhausted. During the pandemic the fatigue department, aware of the issue, published a 'fatigue survey'. 93% of the pilots reported that they were scared to write a fatigue report. 80% of the pilots reported that rostering and stress had an adverse effect on fatigue, 60% that they had trouble sleeping. It was noted by the medical department that hotel lock-down in some destinations has an adverse effect on mental heath and well-being and contribute to increased fatigue.
This was almost a year ago... NOTHING was done to address those issues. It has actually gotten worse. Hours have never decreased. When some destinations started to open, QR decided to enforce hotel lock-down for all of their crew, vaccinated or not, on all destinations, regardless of local regulations.
When responsible airlines decided to cancel flights (and damage their image) because they didn't have the crew, Qatar decided to stretch their crew to the 'legal' maximum. And when this was not enough, they changed the already very permissive regulations.
We have reached "unprecedented" level of fatigue, especially on the 777 and now the 350, to a point I have huge doubts on the safety of operations.
Let me explain.
- First of all Qatar Airways has always been using factoring. When you fly heavy crew, rest time doesn't count towards block time and therefore limitations. On a 16h flight you will log only 8h, except the PIC who will log 16h.
- But this wasn't enough. When other airlines were going to china with a crew change in BKK, ICN or any airport on the way, QR decided to operate round trip to China. Those trips busted all imaginable limitations. But no problem, it was made 'legal' by QCAA. They introduced 'China ULR', 23h duty with 4 crews. Of course, factoring was applied to those flights, and such a duty will count only for 6h30-7h00 block hours. Yes, 23h FDP will count as little as 6h30 regarding limitations.
- But this wasn't enough! On a recent ACN "crew B" (the relief crew, not at the controls for takeoff and landing) has to deduct an extra 1h30 from the block time, and therefore the limitations. If you are not the operating crew, you have to be in the flight deck for taxi, takeoff, initial climb and descent. But this does not count towards limitations.
B crew on a 14h flight to SEA will count only as 5h30 towards limitations.
- But this was not enough! All leave got cancelled. Yes cancelled, people flew like hell and didn't get leave. HR ****** up completely, we don't have pilots, we know fatigue is an issue according to the survey, what to do ??? Just cancel the leave of the remaining flight crew of course !!!! Don't even allow them to carry anything forward to the next year. We will throw those dogs a bone and make them believe that we are doing them a favor! This is by the way completely illegal even in Qatar. But not an issue for QR. They are not even able to respect the regulations of their own country... What a disgrace.
- But this was not enough! There used to be a limitations on consecutive disruptive (night) duties. This was removed and you can now fly 6 nights in a row with 12h rest in between and finish with a 14h trip to the east, get your EERP there, rinse and repeat.
- But this was not enough! In every airline block time is calculated from parking brake release to engine shutdown. Not in QR, it's now from the time the aircraft reach 2 knots to 10 seconds before parking brake. An other few minutes saved on every flight.
- But this wasn't enough! Previously in QR, like in any airline, you had the possibility to report fatigue for a flight. Reporting fatigue would get you out of the roster for 48h. This was too much good for QR. Now when you call fatigue, despite all the rumors and the fear of getting retribution, you'll be given a whooping 12h rest including a local night. Then you’ll be considered fit for duty.
- But this was not enough! Before the PIC of a flight didn’t need to apply factoring. This was changed on a recent ACN. Now on 4 men crew the PIC also has to deduct the rest time from the block. Who is ‘in command’ when he is resting ??
- But this was not enough! We used to have a block of 4 days off (GOFF). Those are long gone. You will get the absolute minimum rest between each duty.
All those tricks put together allow Qatar Airways to disregard any EASA hours limitations.
On a 32h flight DOH - LAX - DOH, you will be logging 14h30 towards the limitations. 17H30 will just disappear. Fastest flight ever if you look at our logbooks. If they assign you as crew B on each leg (this happen when you mix cargo and pax) you will log 13h, 19h will just disappear.
The 100 hours of flight time in any consecutive 28 days, the 900 hours of flight time in any calendar year, the 1000 hours of flight time in 12 Consecutive Months, all of those are not an issue anymore. Your 130h block a month will be counted as 85h, your 1100h block in a calendar year will be counted as 750h, your 1400h in any 12 consecutive month will be counted as 950h.
To cover all their wrong doing, QR introduced an electronic logbook. We are not supposed to have our logbook. The company will kindly provide everything and will make all calculations for us. We just have to print those pages and voila! Convenient, isn't it.
I have been operating like that for the past 18 months. I am now exhausted. I have very often trouble sleeping at night and I regularly wake up in the middle of my rest. I barely spend time with my wife and my kids. I am filing fatigue reports on a regular basis. I even had to call fatigue a few times, and 12h is not enough. I am now calling sick when I need to rest. Food poisoning is now how I am getting rest.
How about that for mental heath and well-being. But don't worry, instead of spending money on keeping their crew and reducing fatigue, they are spending money in yoga courses, panels to explain you what is fatigue (thank you, I know now !), and sponsoring. So if I am exhausted, locked alone in a room for a 2 weeks cargo trip, not an issue. I can read their pamphlet while doing yoga and watching football !! All good, no reason to jump through the windows ! And if I have a heart attack, my bad, I had a pamphlet on nutrition and sleep hygiene, I should have read that more carefully !
With all the factoring and deductions over the past 12 consecutive months I have roughly 960 QR 'logbook hours'; the one that counts towards limitations. When you count in real block hours that's more than 1450h, 45% more than real EASA limitations.
Would I be flying with a normal EASA airline, I would have been on leave for 4 months now.
I don't understand how QR is allowed to operate over European, US or Australian air space with dead tired pilots, pilots that would be long grounded in those countries.
This is very common among 777 FO and will shortly be the case for all 350/330 and 777 pilots.
Cabin crew are collapsing and having heart attack on a regular basis now (they didn't read the pamphlet !!). Their work is more physical than the FD, and they are getting less in-flight rest. On top of that CC management is brutal and discourage any complain or report.
Add to this the level of frustration and resent toward the company and I believe you have the perfect recipe for a disaster.
I can't resign, because I am the only one providing for family of 4, buy whenever I can, I am actively looking for a new job, anything else, anywhere else.
And now Europe wants to give access to more slots to QR?
To all the European pilots, Qatar Airways may become shortly a part of open sky, don't let it happen ! There has been a lots of discussion about the unfair competition that this will create.
None of those mentioned the crews and fatigue. Not only QR has access to government resources, cheap fuel, cheap workforce, cheap (and now extremely stretched) maintenance, but they need 30% less crew than any European or US airline to operate. When your airline is cancelling a flight, QR is pushing is illegally pushing their crew and taking your market. They have little to no concern for the safety of their operations, they just look for expansion at all cost.
Any mistake will be the pilot fault. The guy will be terminated, the report buried in the sand and a new ACN will be issued. Problem solved.
If they become part of open sky, there's going to be a lots of challenges for European pilots and cabin crew. Airlines that actually care for their employees, or apply standard EASA regulations, will not stand a chance against Qatar Airways.
I can't understand how unions and EASA regulators can let this happen. I don't understand how they can enforce regulations to European airlines but not to foreign airlines at the cost of safety. Is it really just to sell some more Airbus (maybe the 'crac' problem that only Qatar Airways encounters starts to make sense), or did some people got some ‘backsheesh’
Same goes for US crews and airlines, but at least they were clever enough not to let them be part of their open sky.