Two or three pilots?
 

Are there international laws governing the number of pilots a long-haul flight needs? Or is it simply company policy?

I recently flew with Virgin Atlantic from Manchester to Orlando and there were only two pilots on board. The flight lasted approximately eight hours.

Would both pilots have been on the flight deck for the entirety of the flight (excluding the obvious toilet visits)? Eight hours seems like a long time to concentrate.

I understand that V/A put three pilots on their flights to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Is this simply because these flights are a few hours longer?

There are various 'schemes' for determining duty limits, depending on time of day, rest before and after etc., and airlines will use the appropriate one. You can be pretty sure this one was legal.:)

Come to think of it, Air India from BHX always have more than 2 pilots on their flights to Amritsar (ATQ) / Delhi (DEL), and Toronto (YYZ). Very rarely will they have 3 pilotss, and more often than not have 4, somtimes even more. There have even been times where there has been 6 pilots, 2 or more would normally take first class seats.

try a google search on "CAP 371". This will give you the rules regarding the maximum duty hours allowed. MAN to Orlando is no problem with two crew given VS departure time.

Thanks, longarm. I've found the document and will take a look.

i had a similar question, what happenes on flights such as sin-ewr? the flight is 21 hours so im guessing there are 4 pilots? each pair flying 10 and 10? what about the flight attendents?