| Hello Everyone,
Hello Everyone,
If you’ve attended, or watched online, one of Doug Parker’s town hall meetings,
you have undoubtedly heard one of his favorite sayings “there’s nothing more
expensive than running a bad operation.”
US Airways is running a bad operation – still.
Because of this, more and more flight attendants are being exposed to
maximum duty day limitations, especially on international flights. So
today, we’re going to look at the maximum on-duty times for domestic and
international flights.
DOMESTIC DUTY PERIODS
In Section 10 (Hours of Service) of your contract, there are three types of duty
periods:
1-
STANDARD
2-
BACK-OF-THE-CLOCK
3-
ON-DUTY ALL NIGHTER
STANDARD DUTY PERIOD:
A Standard Duty Period does not
contain any scheduled flight segments which involve any portion of the
on-duty hours of 0100 to 0459. A flight attendant shall not be scheduled
for a Standard Duty Period of more than fourteen (14) hours. However, a
flight attendant MAY BE REQUIRED
by the company to remain on duty for up to fifteen (15) hours to complete a duty period originally
scheduled for fourteen (14) hours or less and can be rescheduled into the
duty hours of 0100 to 0459.
(Please refer to Section 10-2 D. 1 for further information).
BACK-OF-THE-CLOCK DUTY PERIOD:
A Back-of-the-Clock Duty Period contains at least one scheduled flight
segment which involves a portion of the on-duty hours of 0100 to 459, but
does not involve all of the on-duty hours of 0100 to 0459. A flight
attendant shall not be scheduled for a Back-of-the-Clock Duty Period nor
shall he/she schedule himself/herself for a Back-of-the-Clock Duty Period of
more than twelve (12) hours. However, a flight attendant
MAY BE REQUIRED to remain on
duty up to fifteen (15) hours
to complete a duty period originally scheduled for twelve (12) hours or
less. A flight attendant on a Back-of-the-Clock Duty Period may only be
rescheduled to fly one additional segment, either prior to or subsequent to
the scheduled rest break, but in no event may more than one additional
segment be flown. In an effort to take into consideration the effect of
flying during such time periods, Crew Scheduling will make every reasonable
effort to utilize other working flight attendants for the purpose of
rescheduling before requiring Back-of-the-Clock flight attendants to fly a
longer duty period. Pairings which involve a portion of the on-duty hours
of 0200 to 0459 shall be limited to two (2) flight segments.
(Please refer to Section 10-3 D.
2 for further information).
ON-DUTY ALL NIGHTER DUTY PERIOD:
An On-Duty All Nighter (ODAN)
Duty Period includes all the on-duty hours of 0100 to 0500. Pairings that
are scheduled to operate in an ODAN Period shall be limited to two (2)
flight segments. An ODAN Period shall be scheduled as a stand-alone duty
period, i.e., an ODAN Period shall not be incorporated with any other duty
period in a pairing. A pairing in an ODAN Period shall not contain any
flight segment greater than two (2) hours block-to-block. A flight
attendant shall not be scheduled for an ODAN Period nor shall he/she
reschedule himself/herself for an ODAN Period of more than ten (10) hours.
However, an ODAN Period that has a “rest period” of at least four (4) hours
may be rescheduled for up to fourteen (14) hours. A flight attendant on an
ODAN Period MAY BE REQUIRED
by the company to remain on duty up to
fifteen (15) hours to complete a duty period.
(Please refer to Section 10-3 D.
3 for further information).
DOMESTIC EXAMPLE:
Day #2 of a PHL B767/757
pairing is as follows. (All
times are Eastern)
Flight 1626 MCO-PHL (depart: 1700 – arrive: 1926) block time:
2+26
Flight 0788 PHL-LAS
(depart: 2030 – arrive: 0152) block time: 5+22
When does this crew go
illegal? Does their duty time start when they get on the van at the hotel?
Answer: NO! This crew went on duty at 1600 (one hour before departure for
domestic pairings). Remember, they can be required to remain on duty for 15
hours so; 15 hours from their on-duty time of 1600 would be 07:00 the next
morning. Now, subtract the +15 minute debriefing period and this means that
the crew must be at the gate in LAS at 06:45. The block time from PHL to
LAS is 5+22, so if the crew must be at the gate by 06:45, we must work
backwards by 5+22 and this takes us to: 01:23 (This is the time that the
flight must be off the gate in PHL).
Q & A:
Q:
Do we go by the scheduled block time or the actual flying time that Captain
tells us it will take?
A:
You ALWAYS go by the
scheduled block time. The actual flight time is irrelevant.
Q:
If we push off the gate at 01:15 and we calculated that we were illegal at
01:23, do we still have to go?
A:
Yes! If you were legal to push, you are legal to complete the trip.
Q:
Even if we sit for an hour, or two, waiting to take off?
A:
Yes!
KEEP IN MIND THAT THE CAPTAIN HAS THE DISCRETION TO RETURN TO THE GATE ONCE
YOU HAVE PASSED YOUR ILLEGAL TIME.
INTERNATIONAL DUTY PERIOD:
US Airways had a good operation, with respect to the International flights, up
until last year. 2006 was bad. 2007 is worse. Just to give you an example:
In the first 3 weeks of July, 87 flights have arrived into Europe at least one
hour late (many are several hours late – a few have been over 9 hours late). 16
flights have not had LOD/Os. 40 flights have been short-staffed and 10
international flights have been cancelled – so far. And we’re just talking
about the first three weeks of July.
As you can see, with operational difficulties such as these, flight attendants
are going to be exposed to maximum duty days so we all need to know what the
maximum on-duty time is for international pairings.
This is very simple if you just keep in mind the following two words:
SWEET SIXTEEN
A flight attendant scheduled on a transoceanic international (TI) duty
period operating with or without an international relief officer (IRO), may
be scheduled for fourteen (14) hours on duty,
and may be required to remain on duty for
sixteen (16) hours in actual operations.
There is a reference to 18 hours in the contract –
IGNORE IT! It only applies
to pairings that are published in advance
that are staffed with the FAR-required additional
flight attendant(s).
Crew Scheduling cannot call out an additional flight attendant(s) to make
the pairing legal to exceed sixteen (16) hours.
Let’s look at the VCE Pairing to determine when this crew will go illegal.
(All times are Eastern)
PHL – VCE (departs 1830 – arrives 0255) Block time is: 8+25
When does this crew go illegal?
CHECK IN: 1700 (1 ½ hour before international flight)
Going from 1700, add 16 hours and this takes them to 09:00a
the next morning.
There is a :30 minute debriefing for international flights, so this crew
must be at the gate in VCE by: 08:30a
The Block time is: 8+25, meaning the crew must push off the gate in PHL by
12:05a (the time in which they go
illegal).
Once again, if you are legal to push, you are legal to complete the
pairing. And, once again, the captain has the discretion to return to the
gate once you have passed your illegal time.
If you don’t have a copy
of your contract, you can pick one up at the crew service desk in either
crew room. I hope this helps explain your maximum duty time legalities. I
will be sending out a corresponding chart for you to use as a guide to show
when you and your fellow flight attendants go “illegal” on your next
international trip. (How
to determine when you go Illegal on International )
Remember, you don’t operate under the pilot contract
and don’t expect anyone else to know your contract. This is your
responsibility.
Regards,
John McCorkle - President
Association of Flight Attendants
Philadelphia Council #70
US Airways
OFFICE: 215-492-0840
MOBILE: 215-300-4742
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LOCAL COUNCIL CONTACT NUMBERS
Your local council office
number is 215-492-0840 and the fax number is 215-492-0842.
Office hours are M-F, 9-6. Additionally, you can contact your
officers and reps after normal business hours and on weekends.
John McCorkle, LEC President
JMcCorkle@afausairways.org
215-300-4742
Grace Jones, LEC Vice President
GJones@afausairways.org
215-796-0060
Dan Sampey, LEC Sec/Treas.
DSampey@afausairways.org
215-300-8821
Omar Bryant, LEC Council Rep and RSV Chair
OBryant@afausairways.org 215-240-0339
Pat Williams-Harter, Safety
& Health Chair
PWHarter@afausairways.org 215-688-6718
Paul Frishkorn, Benefits,
Maternity, OIJ - Chair
PFrishkorn@afausairways.org 610-544-2875
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