Please find below an update regarding:
- Cargolux Divisional Assembly 2021
- COVID-19
- Fatigue
- ALPL Instagram Newsfeed
Cargolux Divisional Assembly 2021
The yearly ALPL Cargolux Divisional Assembly will take place on Wednesday, 21 April 2021. After the regular two-year term also a new Cargolux Divisional Board will be elected at this assembly.
If you are interested in joining a team to represent your fellow colleagues and actively shape the future at Cargolux, we kindly ask you to become a candidate for the election of the new Cargolux Divisional Board by simply sending an email to cvboard@alpl.lu until latest 20 April 2021.
A separate invitation including more details and the agenda will be sent a few days before the assembly.
COVID-19
While we wait for the vaccines to be distributed in many of our home countries it is important not to let our guard down. Especially with the third wave of infections on the horizon, please continue to maintain the measures that we have in place to ensure we all remain safe.
In the US we see some States opening up restaurants/bars and at the same time not mandating the wearing of the masks in many public areas. If you have a layover in these States you might be confronted with a situation where people do not follow the safety recommendations, such as other guests not wearing their masks in the hotel lobby or lift.
In those cases, we suggest remaining professional and to avoid any conflict with those individuals by trying to change their behavior. The easiest is to avoid the situation and take the next lift or not be in these large gatherings at all.
Our Hotel Committee has been able to stabilize the hotels to the normal contracted ones at our destinations in the US. Many of them are in affluent areas where local residents follow most of the safety recommendations. Nevertheless, if there is a trend occurring that may be undesirable, the best is to remain in the confines of the hotel and obtain meals via delivery through various apps.
Fatigue
2020 has certainly been a year of change. Being in the cargo industry has seen a remarkable increase in operations mainly due to a lack of belly capacity space of passenger airlines and an increase in other areas of consumerism.
At Cargolux we have seen an increase in operations and there has been a change in the way we operate to avoid layovers at inadequate locations.
While Flight Operations is obliged to mitigate fatigue in advance, we know that they rely on the Biomathematical Model (BMM). The Aviation Safety Department (ASD) has assessed that the BMM in certain cases underestimates the real value of Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) when approaching high levels of fatigue.
While we see less Standard Crew Operations, we do see a large number of augmented flights (3 or 4 pilots). Whereas it is observed that when operating with 4 pilots the long FDPs are managed, the three pilot operations, especially when shuttling back and forth from OVB-CHINA-OVB may be less so.
We therefore would like to remind you that pilots are the only real source of the data when it comes to actual fatigue values in our operation. Maintaining a sleep log and accurately reporting any fatigue related events is crucial in ensuring that these real time data finds its way into the FRM system. Under this aspect, Fatigue Reports should be seen as a vital data source for the system. Please click here for some guidance on how to file a FR.
Furthermore, it appears that a number of colleagues are not familiar with the newly negotiated FDP limits and other restrictions in the CWA. Even if the willingness to assist the company during these times is understandable, please keep these limits in mind. It was very hard to achieve those in the last negotiations! In other words, helping out is ok, flying beyond any reasonable limit is not.
To familiarize yourself with the new CWA, we recommend to read and watch the “Know Your CWA” series, which is available on our website at www.alpl.lu.
Instagram
As you know the ALPL Board uses various channels of communication, such as emails, Debrief videos and SMS to keep you updated. In order to further facilitate the flow of information we decided to use Instagram as an additional source of information for our members. If you are interested, please subscribe to alpl_cv_division to receive real-time updates and news.
