Flightrider, allow me to respond to your points.... .<ul type="square">[*]The Larnaca thing is a good example; and no, I don't agree that it should take longer to turn a BA 767 round than a charter 767. On the latter, you have 326 pax to disembark, clean the aircraft and board 326, whereas BA has one third fewer pax. The critical path to a good turnround is pax off, cleaners on, cleaners off, pax on as you can fulfil all of the other functions in tandem. So we are saying either a) that BA pax are slower to disembark than their charter compatriots; or b) the BA cleaners are slower...Please tell me which company flies 767's to LCA from LGW? I know some who use 757's. .[*]Holding delays ex LHR at approx 15 minutes are often lower than the LGW delays of up to 20 minutes, so that argument doesn't apply either.. .You are kidding aren't you? That LGW has more holding than LHR. Been to LHR have you?. .[*]EOG pilots are limited to 700 flight hours per year and can only exceed 720 with the full agreement of BALPA and EOG management...and sim details and office days count towards your 700 hours at a notional rate of up to four hours per office or sim detail!. .Pardon? It is true that when we are in the simulator we are on duty, aren't you? But that duty is not involved in the FTL's. BTW, from June 1999 to June 2000 I amassed 820 hours flying on a BA mainline S/H contract. In the following 12 months I flew 690. Who's fault? . .[*]The wonderful bidding system at LGW (Carnage to its friends) which allows you to bid for - and allocates - nightstops in places where they don't even nightstop aircraft. Nice, low cost philosophy. The principle appears to be that, if you aren't happy with your roster, you will go sick and your productivity will fall, so they give you what you want if you have sufficient seniority to get it. It also lets you choose to operate fewer sectors throughout your working week.. .Did I mention LGW rostering programs in my posting? I work to Bidline rules. They are the "fairest work allocation program in the Aviation world" according to IALPA.. .[*]If you're replaced by a management pilot for whatever reason on a flight, you can still opt to go along and sit on the jumpseat to claim your allowances!. .Management have many opportunities to 'extract' trips weeks before work is dealt out so why would they nick a trip at the last minute? It could well be an abuse of their authority. Pilots rarely use this clause. But why do managers take a trip at the last minute? I had a Milan nightstop taken from me when a succesful football team from the North qualified for the next round of the Champions league after the extracting had finished. . .[*]If you get taken off a few days' trip part-way through (e.g. due to late running aircraft) and don't complete the rest of the trip, you still get paid your allowances for sitting at home.. .I don't know who told you this but this is cr$p I'm afraid. .[*]The great agreement that cabin crew will be paid up to £38 (£52 for a CSD) for waiting an hour and a half in the crew lounge at Heathrow between flights if they don't have time to go back to the Compass Centre.. .This is a pilots forum, so ask the C/C about Central Area Turnaround payments on another website. .[*]The crazy agreement that city centre hotels have to be used for crew accommodation, even if you're only on a split duty nightstop. Good, cheap hotels with cheap transport costs they most certainly are not. . .Sad but true this. Shows the level of trust BALPA has of the senior managers, who will quite likely make us ALWAYS stay in the airport Travelodge once a split duty crew stays there.. .[*]The crewing of the Middle East routes. A 777 operates Heathrow-Bahrain-Doha-Bahrain-Heathrow almost every day. Now, you would think (given the 6h30 sector to BAH and the 0h40 onwards to DOH) that one crew would take the aircraft LHR-BAH-DOH and then get off, getting back on the following day to fly DOH-BAH-LHR. Common sense. Well, BA crews fly one sector LHR-BAH & get off; operate BAH-DOH-BAH shuttle on the following day; then get a slip day in BAH and operate BAH-LHR eventually on day 5. What should be a three-day trip turns into a five-day trip due to some ridiculous rule about having to get off a long-haul aircraft if it's flown a sector of more than 5h00. A joke - and an inefficient joke at that.. .That could be another question to ask BASSA (C/C), not BALPA!. .[*]And incidentally, when will Concorde crews start operating LHR-JFK-LHR in a duty day? It's no longer a duty day than your average charter day out to DLM, HER, LCA and the like.. .Good question this. I suspect that it is the Upper Level radiation that comes into play but do not quote me . .[*]The whole job lot - BALPA, BASSA, CC89 agreements - need to be torn up and a bunch of BA and union people locked in a room for days to renegotiate something sensible to strike a balance between economic reality and the need to ensure your employees have reasonable working conditions.. .I agree. .[*]But when will someone at BA have the balls to actually tackle this issue? People with guts to go out and achieve change at that airline are in noticeably short supply and 9/10ths of this is of management's own making as they are just too scared to tackle these problems head-on.. .Hmmmm. I'll pass that to the board. Openess, honesty and a long period without the dirty trick brigade getting involved? We pilots would love to see such an era!. .[/list]
Have a pop at the appropriate when answering the title of this thread. We all bear some of the blame, however the pilots are not as blameworthy as you all seem to think. The good days ended in 1991.