EJ is on a 5 month trial of Carmen system (ending in October) and all has been explained to EJ crews via communiques from the Ops Director some weeks ago. The trial of the system was driven by the need to cope with the complexity of a rapidly expanding, multi based operation. The point had come where manual rostering was simply not able to cope with the thousands of pairing permutations. It frankly, had nothing to do with profit but everything to do with assisting rosterers to do their job.
It is true that in the first few months it has taken some time to find the right balance. As rostering work some 6 weeks ahead of the published roster it is taking time to remove the more contentious elements of this type of rostering. The concerns of our crew have been heard and Augusts roster has moved away, for the most part, from multiple individual crew changes. Septemeber will see further adjustments.
It is cynical to suggest that the EJ management are oblivoius to the issues raised by our crews and those in the Company will be aware that rostering have/are indeed making changes. Further, there is NO pressure exerted on any crew member to achieve on time performance if in his/her opinion they need more time for a turnaround. ZippZ makes that point well.