Do BA position crews?

[speedbirdie]

Hi all

Do British Airways position their flightdeck crew to and from destinations? I noticed that that BA operate BAW55/56 as a 744 once a week. How would the crew be rostered for this flight?

[BN2A]

Sounds like a week in the sun!!

Depending on where BAW55 takes them??

[Capetonian]

It's a JNB rotation. Not everybody's idea of 'a week in the sun' but despite the bad press it gets, Jo'burg is a terrific city.

[vctenderness]

The short answer is BA do position crews but I would think in the case of this flight they don't.

The flight crew just get a couple of extra visits to the Butchers shop!

[wiggy]

Before his thread runs and runs....

Yes, BA do position crews (both flight and Cabin), BA are also very very averse to having crew sat around for days on end down route (poor utilisation, Hotel costs, etc).

I'm sure a BA 744 pilot may well have the answer, in the meantime having had a look at a "source" I have to say I can't see any obvious evidence of a week long trip to JNB on the 744 fleet. I don't have time to go any deeper into the issue ('cos it's Sunday and I'm lazy) but I suspect either the crews are positioning on another type or the aircraft rotation doesn't quite work as the timetable suggest - is the 744 switching flight numbers on various days, not just doing the 55/56?

[parabellum]

Do BA do shuttles from JNB? We,(SIA), used to do both Durban and Capetown shuttles, which takes up all the slack in between, in our case, SIN-JNB-SIN and would be LHR-JNB-LHR for BA.

[wiggy]

Do BA do shuttles from JNB?

Used to, but not (routinely) anymore. CPT has it's own dedicated flight(s), Durban dropped off the network years ago, although the 380 guys operated a shuttle there for training a few months back.

Anyway back to the OP, having now taken time to look it appears to me that there's that at the moment there's a 744 a day to JNB, in tonight's case operating the 57, the A380 s doing the 55.....

[Jet Set Willie]

Short Haul, yes......and quite a bit

[speedbirdie]

Hi wiggy

The 57/54 are all 744 but the 55/56 are a380s apart from the one on a tuesday. So crew operate 57 return on 54 two days later. The crew operating the 55 as no flight as the 56 a few day later is the a380.

Thanks everybody for your replys

[Mr Angry from Purley]

In the good old days BA flew Concorde to Barbados weekly. Crew sat in BGI for a week which was strange as you could operate round trip within a single FDP.

[parabellum]

Not sure how true this is Mr Angry but I was told that the reason for not doing the trip within one FDP was because should the flight, in anyway be delayed and the crew go out of hours, there was no other Concord crew available until one positioned out from UK. This would be via other West Indies flights and local flights, (or a spare Concord direct! - way too expensive, even if they had a spare) and for Concord pax such a delay was considered unacceptable. May not be a word of truth in it!

[vctenderness]

Schedule sometimes dictates crew slip. In the'Good old days' the crew slip in Mauritius was a week due to flight only operating once a week on a Sunday.

[Mr Angry from Purley]

Parabellum
Can't argue with that solid reasoning. Mind you when i flew BGI-LHR (won a ticket as her indoors worked for BA) the F/E told me he'd "own wayed" LHR-BGI on the aircraft. I guess a week in BGI in the sun was too much for the crusty old chap (all due respect)

[BN2A]

Just like the crews didn't do LHR-JFK-LHR in one duty..

Just imagine getting off after taking a present day machine to the Canaries, Greece, or similar.... (Other worldwide comparisons are available..).

[kotakota]

In the grand old days of the Beach Fleet , 747-236s out of Gatwick , there was a weekly Seychelles . Absolute heaven , but very difficult to get one . Spent the whole week sailing instead of a hotel . Also , if you liked golf , the 10 day Harare / Lusaka / Lilongwe which involved lots of shuttles , was great fun .