["Pilots asked to extend before the flight departs"
What is wrong with that?? The TOD has commenced......aircraft delayed (engineering/weather etc. etc) so the logical decision is to extend. If the pilots do not want to extend then they do not have to. Quite simple really This happens all the time.]
Well, it would be interesting to hear some different ideas on this one, my understanding, working for a couple of different airlines has always been, if you have a probelem at an outport you use that extension to get home.
You don't use it before the aircraft takes off for the first time (because the inbound a/c arrives late) and you don't use it if you are departing from or passing through a port where pilots are based ?
The wording on extensions usually includes words like "operationally necessary" etc
It should be a last resort.
It seems from the original post that started this thread, that rosters were constructed having 5 sectors and they were also at the limit for duty time with turn around times that wouldn't work, so the only way it could be done was for the crew to extend?