Recently the company has announced in a Chief Pilot Office update as well as in a Flight Crew Advisory the reintroduction of layovers in CGO, where in-room confinement will be mandated.
In recent weeks and months, we have received many complaints regarding the OVB-CGO-ANC flights, where crews felt that they were pushed into commander’s discretion due to the long turnaround times in CGO and unrealistically planned flight times, as well as the OVB-CGO-OVB shuttles. These problems should disappear with the introduction of layovers in CGO.
In a meeting with Pilot Representatives, it was mentioned by the CEO, that the company only considered introducing layovers in CGO, after the problems related to the unpredictable turnaround times in PVG and CGO became apparent, which may be further aggravated by the upcoming winter operations.
At the same time, we acknowledge that the return flight from the PVG shuttles will now be scheduled to KUL, eliminating some layovers in BKK.
According to Luxemburgish law, it is the obligation of an employer to guarantee the health and safety of all employees, and it is fact that excessive time spent in in-room confinement poses a risk to a pilot’s physical and mental health.
We sent a separate letter to the CEO to address these issues, mentioning among other things that we expect management to keep up to its commitment to plan layovers in CGO for not longer than 28 hours. We also expect that the company continues to work together with the Chinese authorities to organize the previously mentioned blocked floors as well as a gym usable for crews. You can read this letter here.
As the currently planned hotel for the layovers in CGO is not the same, which we used before the pandemic, it goes without saying that the quality of rest in the new hotel must be such that the crews are able to recover well enough from the previous duty in order to be sufficiently rested before the next FDP. Should this not be the case, please file a Voyage Report or even an ASR and send a copy to cvhotels@alpl.lu.
In the aforementioned letter we clearly expressed that we expect management to review the CGO layovers together with Pilot Representatives after a trial period of 4 weeks and to discuss actual layover times, the quality of the hotel as well as other possible problems regarding layovers in CGO.
