If you are a commercial pilot and you are out of work now, chances are you will not be out of work much longer.
The reason for this is because of the proposed work rule changes that will guarantee airline pilots 9 hours of rest behind the hotel room door.
This is a major change in our industry and one that is long overdue. Under the current rules, airlines have been able to control an airline pilots life for up to 18 clock hours a day. They have done this in such a way that the pilots being tied up for 17-18 hours a day will swear under oath that they are working a maximum of 14 hours per day.
In order to understand how this has been permitted, you have to understand how the pay and duty times have been calculated at many airlines.
Pilots and flight attendants are usually paid only when the door is closed on the aircraft. Airlines have different ways of counting when the start and stop time begins. Some do it when the brake is released or engaged. Some do it when the passenger door is closed. Some do it when all doors are closed including passenger, service and cargo doors.
However, as you know pilots and flight attendants have to be at the airport 1 hour before the flight is scheduled for departure. This is time the company controls the flight crew, but does not pay them.
Pilots are usually onboard before any passengers are loaded as they go through pre-flight duties. Flight attendants must be onboard because they must load the passengers. Again, none of this time is paid and in many cases it does not count as part of the duty day. This time often comes out of the pilot and flight attendant rest time.
When the plane lands, it's the same thing all over again. The pay stops when the brake is engaged or the door is open. The duty day also stops when the brake is engaged or the door is open. Of course there are still things to shut down in the cockpit and there are still a plane load of passengers onboard. A flight crew is going to be tied up at least another 20 minutes getting the jet bridge pulled up, the passengers deplaned and the systems shut down. Under current rules, this time also comes out of the pilot and flight attendant rest time.
What ends up happening is that a crew can get scheduled for a 14 hour duty day and actually be tied up for 18 clock hours because of the way the schedules are put together.
For example, let's look at a 14 hour duty day with the first flight scheduled out at 6AM. The company would say that the crew will start at 6AM and end no later than 8PM. But that is simply not the case. First off, the crew has to be at the airport at 5AM (one hour before flight time). In order to be at the airport one hour before flight time, the crew would need to be on the crew bus at the hotel at least 30 minutes prior which would be 4:30 AM.
So this 14 hour duty day is already at 15.5 hours in the best case scenerio. The crew bus trip can run 45 minutes to an hour at some stations.
At the end of the day the crew pulls into the gate at sets the brake at 8:00 PM. In the best case scenerio they get all of the passengers off of the plane by 8:20. The crew then walks to the front of the airport to meet the crew bus. It will take at least 10 minutes to make that walk. At some airports it will take more than 10 minutes.
We are now at 16 hours since we got on the crew bus this morning at 4:30 AM.
We now have to wait for the crew bus. That will take anywhere from 5-20 minutes. By the time we get out of the airport it's 9:00 PM. We are now at 16.5 hours since we started this AM.
If we are on a short overnight, it might be a 30 minute ride to the hotel. We are now at 17 hours if everything has been ontime. If there is even a one hour delay it's now at 18 clock hours, that we have been under company control, and we are just getting to our hotel room.
Hopefully this explains where the 17 to 18 hours comes from. You can see from this schedule that flight crews are only getting 4-6 hours of sleep per night under the current rules.
So let's look at the proposed work rules and look at what is going to happen.
The new work rules require that pilots have 9 hours rest, "behind the hotel room door". Keep in mind that there is at least an hour on each end of this 9 hour rule to transport the pilots to and from the hotel. Anyway you add it up, there are 11 clock hours that the company will not control the flight crew.
There are still 24 hours in a day. If you take the 24 hours and you subtract the 11 clock hours then you are left with 13 hours which is the maximum duty day limit under the new rules. This is also the maximum number of clock hours that the company can control the pilots.
It you take the present clock time that a pilot can be tied up by the company (18 hours) and subtract the proposed time that the company will be able to control a pilot (13 hours) you should get a difference of 5 clock hours. If you divide 5 by 18 you will get 27.7% which we calculate is the best case scenerio if nothing goes wrong.
Therefore under the best case scenerio, it will take 27.7% more pilots and flight attendants to fly the same planes on the same routes with the same number of passengers.
Keep in mind that the number of flight hours are not increasing. This does not account for any growth. This does not account for any retirements or exits from the company.
At first glance it would appear that the airlines will spend a lot more money on pilots and flight attendants. That is not correct. While there will be a modest increase for benefits, etc., the hours that the new hires will be flying are taken from the current schedule and flight crews. So a pilot currently flying 90 hours will be cut down to 65-75 hours.
The maximum duty day will be 13 hours. Your quality of life will improve. You will get 8 hours of real rest and the industry will be safer.
There are currently 70,000 commerical airline pilots in the US. 20,000 work at the regionals and 50,000 work at the major and nationals. If you take 27% of 70,000 commerical pilots and calculate it out you will find that 18,900 additional pilots will be needed to fly the same routes with the same aircraft when the work rules go into effect on August 1, 2010.
Joe
