Ryanair annual flight time limits
 

Can any Ryanair pilots please post your company's maximum monthly and annual flight time limitations? Also, what are the regulation limitations as imposed by your CAA? A consultant just did some work for our airline and tells us Ryanair pilots are the most productive in the world flying 1200 hours a year?? In our country that is 200 over our legal limit.

As is the case in all countries operating under JAA regulations, the maximum that Ryanair pilots fly annually is 900 hours, with a maximum of 100 hours in 28 days.

Therefore, it is impossible to do 1,200 hours as has been said. However, the above refers to flight time only and once duty time has been taken into account, you will easily get to the mentioned 1,200 hours.

Actually, it is possible to get to more than 900 hours. This happens exceptionally, but can (and does) happen. Here's how:

Ryanair stick to the 100 hours per month as best they can since this is monitored closely (no argument with that). However, they have a special agreement for 900 hours max in a calendar year (and not a rolling year, which is the industry norm). There are circumstances - such as illness, or joining the airline, or having been on a training course, etc. in which a pilot does not fly and this creates a unique window of opportunity that is best explained by an hypothetical example (which bears an uncanny resemblance to what has happened):

1st three months of year - sick.
1 month of remaining year - leave.
Remaining 8 months of year - fly say 800 hours.

Reach end of year. Flight time zeroed and recommence cycle.
1st four months of new year - fly 400 hours.
Total time in 11-13 months (depending on when leave was taken) = 1200 hours. [This is where your consultant gets his figure].

Even allowing for when the month's leave was taken, you can see how hours in a 12 month period can be much higher than was ever intended.

This cannot be repeated by full-time Ryanair employees that are on a normal roster. However, once an anomaly comes up, or a contractor enters or leaves employment, or a new pilot joins, etc. the potential for "flexibility" comes up. The "zeroing" of time at the end of the calendar year is what makes this work.

Since it cannot be repeated regularly on a planned basis, your "consultant" is, of course, serving his masters well by pointing out something which is literally true, but not really the norm. (I hope you felt bad about your lack of productivity and gave back some money to your employer to compensate for your laziness !).

To be more serious, what this "annual zeroing" means is that exceptional circumstances can be exploited or manipulated. (For example, the above is the reason why some people find their leave is unavailable or why they work much more than colleagues after having been sick for more than a few days). This is alll against the spirit and intention of the original 900 hours in a "rolling year", but you can trust Ryanair to extract every last second of work.

For analogous reasons it is typically through the cancellation of leave that Ryanair can achieve high levels of short-term productivity to overcome pilot shortages (e.g. last summer). The only cost is annoyed pilots, but they have comprehensively demonstrated that they are not too concerned about that! An added advantage of tired pilots is that they complain less.

I absolutely loved that last sentence,were it written in jest that would be funny, but. . . .

GGV:

Can you,or anyone else, explain how any airline can receive permission to violate the 900 hrs per annum; i.e. 900 hours in any 12 month period as is written in FTL's, which are law? How on earth can a calendar year be imposed and this zero-ing process be legal? This is more than 'sharp practice' and would seem to be more than just 'outside the spirit' etc. It seems to be blatent illeagal. The IAA do not have the power to change national law or allow its circumvention.
I'm assuming FTL's are in the national law as per UK.

How? they ask,the I ncompetent A viation A pology acquiesce, simple as A ccount B ank C ash.They are currently trying to bribe/sorry just joking ,convince the "Authority"? that 1000hr per year is OK? Anyone care to bet a months wages on that being refused? No? Me neither.

RAT5, I am not 100% sure but word has it that the ICAO + JAA regulations use the word "year" without defining what "year" means. This opened a useful gap into which our friends at Ryanair readily stepped. I am told that IACO always took it to be a "rolling year" but that when the matter is interpreted by an Aviation Authority it is up to them to decide what "year" means.

Word has it that Ryanair persuaded the IAA that one definition is as good as another (rumour, which is worth little, has it that the IAA did not quite realise what they were agreeing to). So no rules have been broken, apparently. However, I am not aware of any other Aviation Authority who have made a similar decision, but I am not an expert. It is also worth remembering that the 900 limit common in Europe is not a world wide limit. As I understand it several countries have a maximum annual limit of 1,000 hours (e.g. South Africa, the U.S.).

As a matter of interest does anyone know of any other exceptions to the "rolling year" and "900 hours" maxima?

Yes I had heard that FR was pressing the IAA to nominate a date that the year started and hence ended. The IAA stated that it was a rolling year, FR insisted that it had to have a start and end date and in the absence of one being provided by the authority they decided to nominate 1st April - fait acompli! Well, I haven't seen the actual wording of the JAR but if they left available a loophole for FR's legal beagles to rip apart then hell slap it into 'em! :rolleyes: