Could somebody please explain following for me:
- What does CAT mean?
- Why are they reluctant to fixed links? LHR-EDI-LHR-BRU-LHR wouldn't be hard work, would it?
- What's the purpose with standovers?
CAT - Central Area Turnarond. Leftover from the old days. Agreement gives min time at base (LHR) to have meal etc. If it was less than a certain trigger, the rest would be taken in a rest-room/canteen airside in the central area at LHR. This saved the bus/security time of going landside/airside again. You still had a guaranteed 'time at table' to have some dinner, it was just a different table and slightly less time overall not flying. (A lot of time was wasted in the bus going landside/airside before.) - For your troubles you got a payment, which depends on rank.
Nowadays in T5, there is no CAT lounge, it just means a shorter turnaround, still with a min time to have a meal. Payment remains.
Fixed links - The CC do 4 sector days (for extra payments). The trouble is, they will happily do a LHR-TXL-LHR and want the turnaround to be as quick as possible because they are going home.
However on the middle day of a 1-2-1 tour, say TXL-LHR-TXL, there is
no way on God's green earth they will stay on the plane, it is against their human rights and so on. There is no explanation to this, other than fear of what the company might make them do in the future.
Standovers - Allow you to get crew in late, then operate the earliest one out after a days rest, sometimes comes about because of odd numbers of flights in/out and different a/c types operating the routes.