BA 747 fleet roster

[Mizar]

Goodmorning everyone,

As a ex holdpooler who got offered 747 fleet in BA i am looking for some roster and lifestyle information from an inside source.
Also what do you think it might be like in terms of future career progression to be joining a fleet bound for retirement within next 5-6 years.
many thanks in advance
Mizar

[Meikleour]

Mizar: With typical type "freezes"after conversion I would imagine there would be a high chance that you would be kept on that fleet as it dies out!

[macdo]

What a nice thing to have in your logbook/life experience. The last days of the grandest airliiner to take to the skies. Lucky you.

[hunterboy]

At the risk of sounding negative, nobody really knows what JSS will bring in October, especially those at the bottom of the seniority list, prime spot to be “optimised”.
I would anticipate a trip, 2 days off, trip 2 days off, trip 2/3 days off add infinitum until retirement.

[back to Boeing]

As mentioned, JSS is a big surprise that no one knows what it will bring.

However even when I was at the bottom of the pile I still regularly got destinations that I wanted. You can further massage your roster by swapping trips. You can also shorten or extend your trips by sector swapping.

The aircraft is a dream to fly and 99% of the pilots on the fleet are quite frankly brilliant to fly with.

You will be working very hard. Your days off are often spent recovering. Actually when I did my sim assessment the trainer said to me "you will learn what it's like to be tired all the time" but you adapt. Well most people do.

A "standard" roster is very difficult to produce as everyone wants something different.

Just make sure you make the most of it when you're down route. You're a long haul pilot. Explore the world

[Talewind]

Can someone tell me what the average length of layover is on 747 and also any other fleet?

Thanks
TW

[xwindflirt]

layovers are generally between 24-48 hours. There are a few longer trips but these tend to go more senior

[wiggy]

Talewind

as xwindflirt has said 24/48 hours is pretty much standard for most longhaul trips these days.....

A very rough rule of thumb is that for a short longhaul sector to a destination BA operate to daily you will usually have a 24’ish hour layover, i.e. a nightstop (e.g. SEA,ORD, BOM).

Longer longhaul sectors usually generate a 48 hrs layover if it’s a daily serviced destination (e.g. LAX,HKG,EZE) due to a combination of Union agreements/FTL requirements.


Any longer layovers are usually down to either BA services being less frequent than daily to that destination, or a mix of equipment on the route ( e.g. a 777 one day, a 787 the next), or there is a downroute shuttle day embedded in the layover (on the 777 that’s typically some places in the Caribbean).

Whether the long layovers are popular and senior or not depends on the destination- not all long slips are on the beach, they might be somewhere sandy but dry :}

[applecrumble]

Talewind

as xwindflirt has said 24/48 hours is pretty much standard for most longhaul trips these days.....

A very rough rule of thumb is that for a short longhaul sector to a destination BA operate to daily you will usually have a 24’ish hour layover, i.e. a nightstop (e.g. SEA,ORD, BOM).

Longer longhaul sectors usually generate a 48 hrs layover if it’s a daily serviced destination (e.g. LAX,HKG,EZE) due to a combination of Union agreements/FTL requirements.


Any longer layovers are usually down to either BA services being less frequent than daily to that destination, or a mix of equipment on the route ( e.g. a 777 one day, a 787 the next), or there is a downroute shuttle day embedded in the layover (on the 777 that’s typically some places in the Caribbean).

Whether the long layovers are popular and senior or not depends on the destination- not all long slips are on the beach, they might be somewhere sandy but dry :}

Wiggy you will know the answer to this if I could pick your brains. When you come back from a trip is there a minimum number of days off before the next trip depending on trip length? Is there anything in the scheduling agreement to increase this from the legal minimum FTL min rest?

[wiggy]

As you realise that’s a bit of a “how long is a piece of string” question....it’s a combination of EASA FTLs except where over ridden by the scheduling agreement (e.g 2 nights off before and after a long rangesector) complicated by the fact you can volunteer to remove some of the scheduling constraints...

The general situation is the company construct trip lines with a scheduling agreement Minimum Base Turnround of 3 local nights (2 clear days) between trips.

If a line has trips of high credit for days worked (“credit efficient”) there will be bigger gap(s) otherwise the final credit on the line would wildly overrun the Cap.

On some on the minimal time zone change trips (Northern Africa, similar) there may be options for the individual to volunteer at various points in the rostering/post rostering process to opt to cut time at base to 1 night, e.g. to “back to back”..useful when swopping.

Did that sound like a long way of saying “it depends”? :uhoh:

Apologies before hand if that’s a bit wish washy and perhaps not as definitive or illuminative as you’d like...

and then there's JSS................................

[applecrumble]

As you realise that’s a bit of a “how long is a piece of string” question....it’s a combination of EASA FTLs except where over ridden by the scheduling agreement (e.g 2 nights off before and after a long rangesector) complicated by the fact you can volunteer to remove some of the scheduling constraints...

The general situation is the company construct trip lines with a scheduling agreement Minimum Base Turnround of 3 local nights (2 clear days) between trips.

If a line has trips of high credit for days worked (“credit efficient”) there will be bigger gap(s) otherwise the final credit on the line would wildly overrun the Cap.

On some on the minimal time zone change trips (Northern Africa, similar) there may be options for the individual to volunteer at various points in the rostering/post rostering process to opt to cut time at base to 1 night, e.g. to “back to back”..useful when swopping.

Did that sound like a long way of saying “it depends”? :uhoh:

Apologies before hand if that’s a bit wish washy and perhaps not as definitive or illuminative as you’d like...

and then there's JSS................................










Spot on thank you very much for that Wiggy! :)