The most dominant issue in the last few weeks was the situation in HKG, including the wellbeing of our colleagues who were stuck in the hospital and in the quarantine center. This was covered by special updates to our members.
We hereby would like to provide you with some other topics in our monthly update, which might be of interest to you.
- In-Room Confinement Survey
- Future Crew Lounge and Check in Facilities
- Late Arrival before VAC
In-room Confinement Survey
In early September we conducted a survey with the aim to get a clearer picture of how layovers at destinations with in-room confinement are distributed amongst the pilot community. More than 60% of our members participated in this survey, which represents a significant number of responses resulting in a high level of accuracy.
Please click here to have a look at the result that was also presented to Senior Management in the COVID-19 meeting in late September.
In summary we can say that in the period from July until September 2020:
- Layovers were not evenly distributed within the pilot community
- Only 20% of pilots stayed for an average number of days (5-6 days for BC; 6-7 days for FO)
- 44% of BC and 49% of FO stayed below the average number
- 36% of BC and 31% of FO stayed above there average number with up to 17 or
even 22 days in total - Around 50% of layover days with in-room confinement were in BKK with most restrictive rules
With this survey it became evident that crew planning and crew control must increase their efforts to mitigate the burden of in-room confinement for crews by scheduling such layovers more evenly, as 1/3 of the pilots had to stay at destinations with in-room confinement for longer than 7 days, with peaks up to 22 days within 3 months.
With the recent changes of the rotations and the stop of HKG layovers we expect that for the time being the situation will slightly improve and that the duration of a rest period at a destination with in-room confinement most likely will be shorter now.
However, since the impact of in-room confinement is subjectively perceived differently, we recommend filing a proactive ASR should you feel that a repetitive and long layover with in-room confinement requirements would have a detrimental impact on your mental wellbeing and ability to safely operate your next flight(s). Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us via cvboard@alpl.lu should you require any assistance.
Future Crew Lounge and Check in Facilities
In the Joint Delegation Meeting held on 22 September 2020, Pilot Representatives were informed that in April 2021 the crew facilities for pilots will be moved to the Passenger Terminal of Luxemburg Airport.
As the location and configuration of these crew facilities will be an important matter for us pilots and since this project is still in the planning phase, the Delegation requested in a letter to be part of the selection process. Please click here to read the letter, dated 29 September 2020. Unfortunately, until now we haven’t received a response yet.
Late Arrival before VAC
In general, vacation days are precious for every pilot as these are allocated strictly according to seniority and available slots – especially in the holiday season – are limited.
In recent discussions with the Chief Pilots Office we highlighted the spirit of Art. 36.17.1. of the CWA, namely, to protect any vacation period and to ensure that a pilot is scheduled to arrive at Home Base in due time before a vacation period commences. We also clarified when the compensation for late arrival at Home Base before a vacation period as per aforementioned article of the CWA should be applicable.
We are glad that there is a mutual understanding that pilots in general shall not work on vacation days and shall be scheduled to arrive back at Home Base as foreseen in Art. 36.17.1. of the CWA. Please note, neither the Luxembourgish labour law nor the CWA foresee the selling of vacation days.
However, there might be instances, where pilots are asked or are simply scheduled to return from a trip late prior the start of a vacation period. In order to avoid any misunderstandings about the compensation in those cases, we recommend sending a friendly reminder to crew control stating, that you do not agree to fly into any of your vacation days. Crew control will then reschedule the pilot to ensure an arrival at Home Base according to Art. 36.17.1 of the CWA. In this case, any late arrival will be compensated as per aforementioned article.
If a pilot agreed to fly into his/her vacation day(s), compensation for late arrival into a vacation period as per Art. 36.17.1. of the CWA would not be applicable. In such cases, the affected vacation day(s) would be swapped on paper with Off-Days in the respective roster period and compensation as foreseen in Art. 36.16.2. b) 3. of the CWA would be applied.
