Originally Posted by
5strypes
Is FZ much better? The 737 seems to do long sectors, and with the 787 coming it's anyone's guess. Not arguing, genuinely curious. Coming from current short haul with an A380 offer.
Depends on your personal interest. Hopefully one can stay away from the 787 if one wants too. For sure there will be no mixed fleet flying so my guess now is that if you want to stay on the 737 you most probably can. Time will tell tbh. Wrt sector length. If you don't fancy long sectors then don't bid for them. If you don't want layovers then don't bid for them. Obviously you need to do x amount of productivity but still. I see collegues with a whole month of less than 2.5hr average sector lengths. Downside is you will likely have to make a few more trips to get the hours but eh... Or collegues bidding only for early or night GCC stuff for various reasons and getting it. If you are bid prio 1 or 2 then even as a junior you will get almost all trips what you want. You can pretty much make the roster what you want 40% of the time. The other 40% is maybe a 50/50 between bidding and getting and the last 20% you need to bid for annual leave. Plus or minus 10% variation depending where in the calender year you are. Joking aside then bid for perhaps longer and less desirable layover trips and throw a week or 2 of annual leave in the mix. Easy. And then the cycle begins again. With the continued expansion wrt destinations, fleet size and composition it will only get better and better. Not too long I guess before we'll start running a split base so even more variables in the mix to make a nice roster.
I personally like the loooong turns so come to work 9/10 times a month and fly 80/90hrs with near 20 days off. Then on bottom 2 bids it's 60/70hrs, more trips with min days off. You gain seniority quick too equilling better rosters.