With this member update we would like provide you with information on the following topics:
- A Farewell to Captain Einar Kristjansson
- Pilot Off Day Pool (POD)
- PBS Working Group
A Farewell to Captain Einar Kristjansson
On 9th May 2026, Captain Einar Kristjansson performed his final landing on a Cargolux B747, marking the conclusion of a long and distinguished career. Einar joined the company in 1994 and became a member of ALPL shortly thereafter in 1995. Over the years, he was deeply committed to his colleagues, serving as President of the Cargolux Divisional Board from 2011 to 2015. Additionally, he was a member of the Cargolux Staff Delegation (2011–2016) and served on the Board of Directors (2012–2017).
To mark this special occasion, Michael and Johannes, on behalf of the entire Cargolux Divisional Board and the Executive Board, presented Einar with a certificate of appreciation. This token honors his dedicated leadership as President and his enduring support and commitment to the Association.
We wish Einar all the very best in his well-deserved retirement!
Pilot Off Day Pool (POD)
This is a friendly reminder to donate one or more of your vacation days to the POD if you haven’t done so yet. Despite Ingo’s call, donations are progressing very slowly. To ensure effective pilot representation both now and beyond the term of the current delegation, it is essential that representatives who lack official delegation office time (such as Markus, Max, Nikolai, Johannes, Bernhard, and others) are provided with enough PODs to attend meetings and seminars.
As mentioned in the recent podcast, other airlines have agreements where one vacation day per pilot is automatically deducted annually to secure these resources. To safeguard our representation in the future, this might also become a necessity for us at Cargolux. However, we would prefer to rely on collective solidarity. Furthermore, it is increasingly frustrating to see that a small group of the same colleagues regularly contributes disproportionately, while the vast majority is coattailing. If every pilot donated just one day, we would have enough resources to cover the next 7 to 10 years.
With an extra annual off day negotiated in 2020 and the addition of the guaranteed MAT compensation day, we believe donating just one day is a fair request to keep our representation strong. We kindly ask you to think about it and consider donating one or more of your VAC or outstanding VAC days.
Note: If a pop-up blocker prevents the link from opening, please click it a second time or right-click to open it in a new tab.
PBS Working Group
In late April another PBS Working Group meeting took place. Generally, the overall success rate for the months of March, April and May was lower than at the beginning of the year. This is mainly due to the change of the network and suspension of stops in the Middle East due to the war in the Middle East.
However, there is one important point worth mentioning that has a direct impact on the outcome of the bidding: The number of viable bids. The number of viable Off Time bids on the captain´s side dropped to 66% in April, compared to 88% in March and followed by 89% in May. The individual success rate for the ones who placed viable bids was therefore very high in April. But overall, 1/3 of the Off Time bids in April have not been processed by the system, because they were invalid!
For the First Officers, the number of viable bids is generally lower and hovering between 80% and 85%.
In this context, we would like to remind you of our PBS Tutorial videos. Please take the time to watch them to familiarize yourself with the bidding system and how to make optimum use of it. These videos are available on our website and the new ALPL App, which allows you to access them easily and watch them offline.
📲 Download the ALPL App (iOS): https://alpl.lu/app
Statistics
Below are the numbers at a glance, based on viable bids:
| Category | Mar (BC / FO) | Apr (BC / FO) | May (BC/FO) |
| At least 1 Off-time bid granted | 85% / 88% | 99% / 84% | 94% / 85% |
| 1st Priority bid granted | 81% / 80% | 90% / 69% | 83% / 77% |
New update for colleagues on part time: If you are using the “Floating Days Off“ bidding option, you must include your 5 B/C Days + XPA days in the date period. If the selected period is too short, the bid becomes invalid.
As a general reminder: When you use the “Floating Days Off” bidding option, you DO NOT REQUEST THE STARTING DATE of the Off Day Block, but the period, within which you want the Off Day Block to be allocated. If the Period is too short for the requested Off Day block, the bid is invalid and will not be considered.
