Flying free on Ryanair.
 

I notice that Ryanair flight crew can position on Ryanair flights free of charge with a requirement to travel in uniform I believe.

Are APD and local government taxes levied on these flights or are they actually FOC?

FOC otherwise it would never happen.

You are listed down as a member of operating crew. The manual states its for work purposes only, must be in uniform and be fit to fly.

Are the duty hours logged?

Thought not - so basically another potential evasion of taxes/charges by Ryanair.

Appreciate the beneficiary might appear to be the positioning crew but can't help feeling that MOL is artificially reducing his cost base as crews are shuttling to/from various bases, albeit on days off, FOC.

So he can have aircraft in bases with a high cost of living knowing that many pilots allocated to that base will be able to accept lower salaries than local carriers pay their flight crew as they will fly in and out FOC and rent rooms locally for duty periods.

If there was an additional financial cost of this positioning for flight crew it might make it harder for Ryanair to staff new bases.

Before you stir the :mad: and make life even harder for Ryanair pilots, please bear in mind that Spanish Crew holding a valid Spanish Crew Certificate can do this on any Spanish carrier, not just their own.
Much as it was in the USA pre 9/11.

Your "contribution" is not particularly welcome on a pilots website.

And it does not actually work like that either, renting for five days at a time is more expensive than renting full time.

I don't know anyone who has ever rented a room for 5 days out of base flying. Pretty much everyone uses a local hotel or B&B, apart from a few occasions when people know somebody local.

Don't get what your issue is with jumpseat travel for operational reasons. It's neither new nor exclusive to FR.

Malice yet again!
 

Why is it that so many people who have absolutely no connection with FR have to stir things up. Mind your own business and go away.

Jumpseating is generally a miserable experience, and I thank The Lord I don't have to do it too much these days. I prefer to pay to travel with easyJet, if the connections work for me.

As an aside, with the crappy online booking system and general poor treatment by gate staff, it amazes me that we have so many passengers!!!

In my last airline (I was there for nearly 20 years) free jumpseat travel for aircrew into and out of a series of flying duties (which could last for anything up to 11 days) was allowed. This made the job so much easier to do and it was an absolute Godsend to know that you could deadhead home at the end of the week.

It was, and has always been part of the aircrew package.

When I worked in America, I seldom went anywhere without a couple of guys on the jumpseats. They did not even have to be an employee of the airline I worked for but they absolutely HAD to have a professional FAA licence.

There occasionally was the odd person who deeply resented this perk of our profession and they were usually from the non-aircrew employees. The only possible motive for sh*t stirring was one of pure unadulterated jealousy.

I suspect that the gentleman with the ES-callsign belongs to the latter camp.

One further addition to my last post;

Unless EASA has made huge changes:

Deadheading into an immediate duty counts as Flight Duty Time.

Deadheading out of an immediate duty does not count as Flight Duty Time.

Personally I try and sit in the flight deck when J/S possitioning, even if I don't know the flight crew. Guaranteed every time I need to possition from my home to my base the flight has 188 pax plus 50 screaming babies and the only seat left is seat B or E in between a flatulant 25 stone manatee and some lunatic plane spotter who asks questions for the entirity of the flight. For some reason the concept of pilots sitting on a plane and not flying it is completely absurd to most pax and they stare at you as if you've got antlers or something.

Survive all that and you get home and have nightmares about scratchcards.

To return to the original question. Does RYR issue a ticket free of charge to the 'employee'? In which case the system is working correctly as I believe they can legitimately do this provided the passenger is a genuine staff passenger on duty and they board as a passenger through the gate. Less clear if the passenger is an independent contractor. This would amount to handing out free tickets without payment of appropriate taxes.

Much more serious if the passenger merely breezes through the crew channel in uniform. This bypasses security and immigration requirements as well as evades the appropriate taxes.

I think what the OP was getting at was the "on duty" part. They may be listed as "operating crew" but when they are on a day off and not being paid for the duty, and it is not being logged as a duty period, they aren't "on duty", and definitely not "operating crew".

What are you trying to achieve by moaning about Ryanair pilots positioning to and from their bases without paying their own employers to do so?

They position in uniform, the time is counted as duty time, they have to be fit to fly, they go through the pax gate, they are noted on the loadsheet.

It is not exactly a perk and it is what has been happening for flight crews all around the work for decades.

If you want to have a witch hunt against FR please pick an issue that actually matters and does not impact negatively on pilots who are already suffering by being based away from their loved ones.

+1 for paying for a flight rather than jumpseating with RYR! :O

They position in uniform, the time is counted as duty time, they have to be fit to fly

That statement isn't entirely truthful is it?

FR pilots use off days to travel to all bases. Even if thay have a home base, thay travel to all bases on there off days, and It's not part of there duty time, wich it should be..
Cant understand why FR pilots accept this, wich is unlegal...!! And thay dó it on there own exspences..
FR pilots, why dont you sue this scam of a company.. It's pure slavery

Do you position on day one, work three days then position home on day five? Or do you position on the last of your days off work five days the position home on the first of your days off?

LSM,

The latter.

What concerns me is that there is no system in place to stop pilots positioning on Day 1 in the morning to operate 4 sectors in the afternoon. There is a requirement in the ops manual to position the day before. Pilots are not inclined to do this because they lose a day off and have to pay for another night in a hotel. Obviously it is illigal to position in the morning for a long 4 sector day in the afternoon. Pilots risk their licence by doing so but I am surprised the company is not concerned by the fatigue factor, especially with so many young crews poling around.