Likewise with Pilots in the Office, most are desperate to get back in the air when faced with only two days off a week
This is not the serious reply I might have expected from you Mr. AP. When I worked for a certain LoCo in its early embryonic days we were limited to the minimum 8 days off in 28. After 3 years at university doing engineering my slide rule calculates that is 2 days per week. There is another LoCo where pilots regularly do 5/3 and travel home/work/home during their 3 days off. My slide rule tells me that is less than 2 days per week. For those on 5/4 rosters the same is true. Let's not forget the fact that LoCo boys lose half a nights sleep every working day; half their duty month. Not so the office wallers.
Your comment about driving home is very accurate. The biggest problem is lack of common sense from management. They seek only maximum productivity. Humanity is not included in their philosophy. There is not thought of allowing owls & larks to work at their best times. There is no allowance for age. One set of FTL's to cover all sort of operations is not the most realistic. To expect a >60 year old to tolerate the same rosters as a 25 year old is unrealistic. There needs to be more common sense. Previously it was common for pilots to retire at 55; it then crept up to 60; it's now commonly 65 and for some, now, even later in life. IMHO it is not sensible to expect a >60'er to be operating a common LoCo early/lates for 5 days and be sharp for the whole duty. The same true for long-haul. All this BS about controlled rest in the cockpit to allow very long flights. Perhaps if the seats were designed for it, but they are not.
It is about time the powers that be, and that includes XAA's, governments & managements, pulled their heads out of the sand and admitted there is a case to answer. At the moment everyone involved on the other side of the fence is trying to massage the facts and making them to appear something they are not.
I've worked for many different types of airlines in 4 different national regimes, short-haul, charter, long-haul, LOCo, national carrier, etc. I can say with absolute certainty, from personal experience and that of colleagues, that regular rostering to maximum FTL's is plain daft for a whole host of reasons. There are no sensible reasons or excuses for doing it. It is troubling when people try to justify it.
I have no faith in the 'powers that be', all of them. If ever there was need for strong union leadership and sensible campaigning this is it, but I've no faith there either.
To those who disagree with me, then we shall agree to disagree. And there I shall leave it.