nolimitholdem, brilliant post only missing one thing
Cram 92 hours flying into ten months of the year, to get as close as possible to the 900 hour limit. Then during a 5 week suspended animation period, sometimes called the Reserve Month, were there are no planned days off, an occasional flight or two, lots of standbys, sim support and totally random days off, all of which are allocated at 6pm each evening.
With what is left of the year, use the pilot's leave allocation to optimise operational needs, by fractionalising it so that the already thin manpower numbers are more readily available, just when the company needs them.