Long-haul turn around crewing...........
 

Hi folks - just a quick question out of interest really...

I recently took FCA to Cayo Coco from MAN (great flights by the way, thanks all!) and I think I'm right in saying that these are weekly (saturday's) if not fornightly journeys, with the a/c returning to MAN on the same day as it arrived - both times with pax.

So... Given that it's a 10-hour flight, the outbound crew can't possibly staff the a/c on the inbound - that would be over 20 hours graft. And given that these are weekly flights, surely the outbound crew can't be based in Cuba for a whole seven days waiting for their return.

Do the crew for the inbound flight go out to CCC on the outbound and staff the return journey?

Hope that all makes some kind of sense!!

Cheers all :ok:

That is one of the perks of the airline industry.

They will either be there for a week of R&R between sectors or will position in from another nearby destination a day or so before the flight out.

Generally speaking, that is often exactly what happens. If there is one weekly rotation, the crew stay for a week then operate the next home bound schedule. A destination such as Cuba has a number of resort airports and it isn't unusual for crews to be also bussed from one resort to another to operate an inbound schedule that results in less than a week stopover. Similarly and depending on the area of operation, crews can be "airlined" from one destination to another.

It can be a complex process of costing that depends on the season and subsequent availability of resource, but certainly stopping over for a week is often the cheapest option for an airline and it is not at all unusual.

Our airplanes seldom sit for more than two or three hours at a time. They're going around the clock, otherwise. One crew gets off, another gets on and goes...the airplanes don't rest until they come back home for an inspection of maintenance cycle.

We get off the airplane, get our required rest, and get on the next airplane that comes through...and operate to the next destination where we get off, get our required rest, and get on the next airplane. From time to time, we spend several days sitting. Often by the time we have spent two-three days, the same airplane we got off is passing through again...having already gone around the world at least once or more, and we go again.

Thanks all - so my girlfriend's assertion that "surely the crew can't spend a week in Cuba on work" might be wrong!! Seems like I'm in the wrong job, thanks for all the replies folks :ok:

Tom, I think you'll find that the return crew will have positioned in from another part of the Caribbean - quite possibly on a private charter. My other half often heads over to that part of the world as cabin crew, pitches up in Orlando then positions to Cancun before flying back to the UK etc...

The days of week long stays in resorts are pretty well gone for the charter operators I'm sure!

I had better start unpacking my case then!

Operators will try and maximize their crew resources by combining crews within areas if that is productive and cost effective. However it often isn't. Commercial airfares and the added rest requirements are often more expensive than simply leaving a crew in situ for one week. Again the situation differs from season to season as crew are in greater demand during the summer months.

Other complexities can arise where cabin crew can be utilized when flightdeck crew cannot. This might occur when two different aircraft types are employed to different (or even the same destination). This may result in the cabin crew having a shorter layover and the flightdeck crew staying for a week.

Oh bring back the 5day+5day back to back to Bermuda! Now there was a hard 10 days work! :E

In the days of Air Europe, on the B757, we used to get a week by the beach in Banjul, as did BCal and, I think, Airtours(BA). A good time was had by all!;)

Well I work for a charter operator(no prizes for guessing which one)
I am going to be enjoying a nice 8 day Miami in November, The days of long trips have definately not gone... or I would have!! :ok:

A week in CCC? Bugger that off! I'd rather put sharpe things into my eyes, it's a hole. Bad before Ike, but now.....