Long-haul charter crews
 

How do long-haul charter operators (such as First Choice, TUI etc) that operate a single flight per week to long haul destinations manage to rotate their crews?
Does each flight operate with 2 crews, 1 dead heading and 1 operating?
Surely they can't stay out all week until the next flight (can they?).


Regards

In the days my wife was an F/A for a UK charter airline with B707s (that tells you how long ago it was) they did indeed stay all week at such places as LAX and YVR. Those days are long gone and now crews will be positioned (either by scheduled flight or private charter) to fly the return leg from some other point served in the area - most probably the next day! Don't forget that these operators have a flight almost every day to some Caribbean island, Mexico or Florida (etc).

Before joining BA i worked for four years with a charter company,i had some truly fantastic trips,a week in Cancun,Havana,San Juan PR,Tobago to name a few.On many occasions we used to take the same passengers back that we had brought out with us,and we got paid for every hour we were there!Fantastic times!

When I worked for Air Europe we would get the odd week in Banjul, helps if you have a good crew!;)

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what happens to flights such as Transaero that operates to Toronto only once a week on Wednesday? do they stay there for a week and their company pays for the hotel (which is kinda hard to imagine) or are they headed to say London and then act as a crew from London to Moscow?

This happens all the time. If a flight operates to a long haul destination then the crew stay a week until the next rotation. In fact the cost of hotel accomodation ( at block discount rates ) and crew allowances for the period is invariably less than paying to fly the crew one way home, and then another crew out to operate the next flight home. Even if that were not the case, both sets of crews would require hotac and days off at either end to satisfy the duty / rest parameters. This leaves little productive availability that might justify the cost to an airline.

As has already been suggested, crews can be slipped to another station that might allow for better utilization and where practical this often happens. The practicality is also complicated by the utilization of different aircraft types. Cabin crew may operate on two or three different types whereas flight deck crew may only operate one type or possibly two where (CCQ) type similarity exists.

One other option is to layover the aircraft while the crew acheive minimum rest. BA do this with Luanda.

I guess it would all depend on the circumstances and the airline concerned. Back in my charter days, I did plenty of week long trips due to the frequency. Other times, I have flown into a destination, such as Montego Bay, night stop, then private charter over to Cancun, nightstop, then operate back to the UK.

Shouldn't this thread be in Aviation History and Nostalgia??? :p

I think this is more to do with an identified risk of the crew being in Luanda for a week.
Martinair the Netherlands charter operator used to have one of their own aircraft (a Brasilia ?) based in the Caribbean which used to shuttle widebody crews between the different destinations each day. Must have been a challenge to schedule it all.
Transaero use different types to London (737) and Toronto (767), and the London crews always operate out-and-home, no stopover.

I have had 3 week long trips to Banjul in the Gambia since November, and im goin again in March!!!