Cargolux

In part 8 of our series “Know Your CWA 2017” we took a closer look at “Delayed Reporting”. In January 2018 Cargolux finally had to change the OM-A procedure for delayed reporting away from home base on request from DAC-L to be in line with the EASA FTLs. Please find below the text and explanation of the revised delayed reporting procedure as outlined in OM-A Chapter 7, Section 6.

FDP Rescheduling

• If in the period of 10 hours or more before the scheduled departure time, Cargolux informs the crew member of a delay, the delay counts as a rest period.
• A delay of 10 hours or more counts as a rest period.

Delayed reporting

If due to unforeseen circumstances, the report time has to be delayed, the following provisions apply based on the number of notifications issued by Cargolux to the crew member in the period between 10 and the latest possible notification time prior the scheduled departure.

The latest possible notification time is:

• At home base: 2,5 hours prior to the scheduled departure
• Away from home base: 3 hours respectively at the company provided wake-up call, whichever is earlier

To avoid interference with sleeping patterns a silent notification method should be used when possible.

Notification methods:

• Default: email
• Alternative method on Pilot’s request: SMS, phone call

Communications will be identified by the wording ‘delayed reporting’ and specify the updated reporting time.

Phone enquiries or information obtained otherwise by crew members are to be considered informal and do not qualify as delay notification.

The maximum FDP is calculated as follows:

With the implementation of EASA FTL every operator is obliged to establish a procedure to notify flight crews in case of a delay. The purpose of this procedure is to limit the total wakefulness prior commencing duties and to manage the starting time and/or length of a FDP due to such a delay. The delayed reporting procedure is only applicable for notifications between 10 hours and 2 ½ hours (at home base) respectively 3 hours (away from home base) before the scheduled departure time.

• If a delay notification is received 10 hours or more before the scheduled departure time, this notification does not qualify as “Delayed Reporting” as long as no further disturbances by Cargolux occur. In this case, the delay counts as rest period.
• If a delay notification is received less than 2 ½ hours before the scheduled departure time, the notification does not qualify as “Delayed Reporting” and the FDP starts at the original scheduled reporting time.
• If no delay notification is received, the FDP starts counting at the original scheduled reporting time.

Cargolux uses 2 notification methods. The default method is a notification by email. Alternatively, the pilot can also be notified by SMS or phone call if requested by the individual pilot. These two methods are the only official ones and any inquiries, e.g. by phone do not qualify as delay notification.

The delayed reporting table considers the number of notifications and the extent of the delay of the reporting time and can be summarized as follows.

• 1^st notification
  • Delay of reporting time less than 4 hours
    • The maximum FDP is based on the original reporting time.
    • The FDP starts counting at the new reporting time.
  • Delay of reporting time 4 hours or more
    • The maximum FDP is based on the more limiting reporting time, either the original reporting time or the new, delayed reporting time.
    • The FDP starts counting at the new, delayed reporting time.

• 2^nd notification
  • The maximum FDP is based on the calculation done for the 1^st notification as explained above.
  • The FDP now starts counting 1 hour after the second notification or at the first delayed reporting time, whichever is earlier.

Example A:

A Standard Flight Crew is scheduled to operate a flight departing LUX at 14:00 UTC. At 02:00 UTC on the same day the crew receives an email stating, that the flight is delayed by 4 hours and the new STD is 18:00 UTC. Since this email was sent more than 10 hours before the original STD, the notification does not qualify as Delayed Reporting. (Please be aware that the roster publication limit for a Standard Flight Crew of 11 hours in the CWA is now limited to 10:30 hours because of new departure time).

Example B:

3 hours before the STD of 18.00 UTC in example A, the crew receives an email mentioning “(Delayed) reporting times notification for flight : …“ with an amended STD of 19:30 UTC, a delay of 1:30 hours. According to the Delayed Reporting procedure, the maximum FDP is calculated based on the original scheduled reporting time of 16:50 UTC, but only starts counting at the new reporting time of 18:20 UTC.

Example C:

The story continues; The crew receives another email and SMS at 17:00 UTC. Crew control states that maintenance requires additional time for an unforeseen repair, causing another 1:30 hours delay and asks, if the pilots could consider it as unforeseen circumstances, waiving the need for a 2^nd delayed reporting notification. To follow such a request would be a violation of the OM-A and shall not be done!

Instead, a 2^nd delayed reporting notification must be sent, indicating the new departure time. The new departure time is 21:00 UTC. According to the Delayed Reporting procedure, the maximum FDP is based on the reporting time at 16:50 UTC but starts counting at 18:00 UTC, 1 hour after the 2^nd delayed reporting message, which is earlier than the original delayed reporting time of 18:20 UTC in example B. Because of this, the flight cannot be completed within the 11 hours FDP for a Standard Flight Crew.

Example D:

A pilot is scheduled for a flight departing LUX at 13:00 UTC. Reporting time is 11:50 UTC. He only receives a wake up call at 12:00 UTC because the flight is delayed to 14:10 UTC. Since he did not receive any “delayed reporting notification”, the FDP is calculated based on the scheduled reporting time of 11:50 UTC and also starts counting at 11:50 UTC.

If due to the Delayed Reporting procedure a flight duty cannot be completed within the maximum FDP, it is the obligation of the company to either delay the flight for crew rest or add an additional crew member to augment the crew.

Ultimately the intention of the regulation is to limit the total time of wakefulness prior to commencing duties. If you deem that you will be awake for a period of time prior to commencing a FDP which may impact or potentially impact your ability to perform safely your flight duties, inform crew control and dispatch if you will require additional rest and complete a proactive fatigue report.

Please follow this link to download your copy of the CWA for your perusal on the company provided iPad or any other computer for future reference.

If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us at cvboard@alpl.lu for clarification.

All parts of this series can be found here in the Publications section under Cargolux Board.

Once again, we have seen a year where ‘crisis’ management remains the modus operandi in running this organization.

When the financial crunch arrived in 2009 together with the antitrust investigation, panic set in and shareholders were forced to inject capital to keep us functioning financially.

The peaks and troughs continued in 2012 and 2015-2016 whereby in Aug 2016 the company was in the red to the tune of -$60 Million. A recent staff meeting was held by the delegation where this and many other items were presented. Click here to view the presentation.

These financial issues have created stressors in all department in terms of insufficient staff numbers and we certainly see this today at Flight Operations. During the last negotiations, the previous CEO froze all pilot recruitment in October 2014 until the negotiations were complete in January 2016!  Additional errors were made to not offer the Lufthansa CityLine pilots the existing contracts they were flying on and all of the 24 vanished except 2 pilots.

Furthermore, additional flexible fleet in terms of pay by the hour B747-400F aircraft were introduced all the way up to September 2017. This and with aircraft block hours averaging close to 16 hours per day has meant we are short of pilots from the onset. Pilot recruitment and training in order that a new pilot is cleared on the line has to be planned in advance between 9-12 months to enable the flexibility the airline is looking for.

But it does not end there. Since the recruitment commenced in January 2016, 83 new pilots have been trained year to date. However, by retirements, loss of license cases, a well-accepted part time scheme and departure of Lufthansa CityLine pilots and others leaving for other employment options, where stability is the priority, a total number of 75 pilots exited the company, resulting a net gain of only 8 pilots, while doing all these additional block hours.

This net effect has meant the following areas have surfaced;

• The CWA is interpreted in favor of the company where flights are unilaterally scheduled into CODs and VAC amongst other things
• The CWA maximum FDPs for standard crew are being misinterpreted as only applicable at initial roster publication and not at the publication of a revised roster due to a change to a completely different FDP or rotation.
• FDPs in general are unrealistic where empirically calculated taxi times are not included and turnaround times are shortened to make the FDP legal,
• The exception of planning a Back-to-Back rotation beforehand is being misused by using this provision as a hidden standby system during an already commenced rotation.
• Roster stability is at an all-time low, where it is estimated that only 30% of rosters that have been initially published were actually flown during the ‘peak’ times

As a Board we are addressing the CWA relevant issues through the LCGB who is directly requesting intervention from the labor inspectorate (ITM).

We have also started a legal process to the DAC-L on the correct application of the Time Zone Compensation (TZC). This process will be ongoing in 2018 and we will provide further information when it would become available.

These and many more issues are being addressed at all levels of the legal system. We are determined to ensure that our working conditions in flight operations are managing the fatigue levels in advance. But you can imagine that any legal process can and will take some time. While we should manage our expectation on quick results from the legal side, we are definitely tasked to be vigilant on fatigue issues and request more rest or a roster change, when the safety of the flight is in danger.

We as an ALPL Board appreciate your support and ask that you make yourselves familiar with the guidance material we have produced to assist you on the line. You will find these documents here. Please do take the time to read these. We have four board members who actively answer rostering questions in a timely manner from you the members.

Please assist us when you have a rostering issue to be familiar with the ‘Know Your CWA’ literature relevant to your concern and then request confirmation from us by sending us your roster and question etc.

It is also vitally important to be acquainted with Chapter 7 of the company’s OM-A. Many of you have applied your responsibilities especially with regard to discretion. One notable rotation for example being LUX-SJU-ATL now has a crew change in SJU due to the fact that the FDP was obviously unrealistic and would mean that crews always would have to use discretion to complete the flights.

We will continue to provide leadership in protecting the interests of the members to ensure that the CWA is being respected. We ask that you assist us in achieving this by remaining united.

Hotels
We are pleased to say that the majority of the hotels we currently stay at have been re-signed for another year or two. This is excellent news and the Cargolux Hotel Committee would like to thank management for working with them to ensure that crew rest is not compromised.

You may however, see a few hotel changes on our network in the coming months, due to either upgrading hotels in an area, or because the hotel is undergoing renovations. The latter will be the case in ICN, BAH, and MCT. The committee is currently working with management to make sure suitable alternatives are provided.

In DXB a new hotel may be tried out soon. The hotel committee will update you of any progress.

In NYC the hotel will probably move to a voucher, to be submitted for breakfast. This will hopefully eliminate the current confusion surrounding what you are eligible to, but as it stands at present it remains, 1 coffee, 1 orange juice, 1 main dish, 1 side. The “standard” steak and eggs is considered 1 side and 1 main!

In Europe the hotel committee is trying to find solutions at BRU and ZAZ. If you have any ideas, please contact the hotel committee at cvhotels@alpl.lu.

The committee will provide updates throughout the year, but please keep the committee abreast of any issues you encounter so the committee members can be proactive in correcting these issues.

Immobilized Off Days Scheme (FFOD)
Even though we have come to an agreement on the CWA application of the FFOD, management from the Legal and Flight Operations department are resisting on having this agreement signed by the unions.

The content in the agreement has a variation at the request of the management and therefore requires the need for a union signature. A letter was sent by the LCGB to the CEO stressing that the legal stakeholders have to sign this agreement. Yet no answer has been received.

The ratification by the unions is needed in order to ensure that what was agreed has longevity in the CWA.

TSA and DTY1 Compensation Days
We have had members inform us that they have had their vacation days removed and the TSA and/or DTY1 compensation days replace these vacation days.

The TSA and DTY1 are compensation days for the computer based training to fulfil the legal requirements of completing the mandatory training in the current year. Your vacation days cannot be moved without your explicit prior consent to accommodate these two compensation days.

We received further complaints that these days are assigned duty. This is not correct, as they are compensation days only for time spent doing the studies anywhere at the discretion of the pilot instead of the need to travel to Luxembourg for classroom training.

Pilot Representatives
Recently, Frank Scheitweiler asked to step aside as an effective delegate for personal reasons.  Frank has been active member visibly in the catering committee and in the background preparing many other dossiers that will assist the ALPL in areas that will support pilots when upcoming EU regulations come into force.

We would like to thank Frank for his dedication. In his message to all pilots we are glad to have immediately received an application from Markus Gerneck to head up the catering committee, which was accepted by the board. Welcome aboard Markus. Alexander Erhard being the next inline as a substitute delegate has become an effective delegate.

EASA FTL Effectiveness Live Data Gathering
We would like to thank those members who volunteered to participate in the live data gathering by the independent consortium from EASA, led by the Dutch Aerospace Center (NLR), to determine whether the current EASA rules provide sufficient protection from potential consequences of aircrew fatigue and, if necessary, to make recommendations for changes to the EASA rules. This has been and will be an opportunity for all European pilots to demonstrate the potential flaws of the current regulations. Many pilots in the low-cost arena have been prevented from participating by their employers!

It must be understood that all these mathematical models and current regulations need the feedback from the single data source to validate the real effectiveness and that is us the pilots operating these flights.

Many of you have written reactive and proactive fatigue reports. This data has been and will continue to be analyzed by the flight safety officers in the Safety department.

In the new year the results of the FSAG survey will be made available after it has been presented to the Safety Review Board (SRB) of the company.  Many of you have communicated that the feedback (data) of your fatigue reports are not taken into consideration. As members of the FSAG, we can verify that all results are taken into considerations and is presented to the SRB with clear recommendations. The ball is now with the post holders and the accountable manager to implement these recommendations.

Please do not be discouraged at the absence of change. In the long term, we believe that this will change. In the short term, we as professional pilots need to apply our own Fatigue Risk Management whist the company emerges from its ‘crisis management’ mode by planning ahead in this critical part of the operation.

The recent reports about staffing levels at Cargolux are alarming and could risk the airline’s future development!

On 27 November 2017, the LCGB held a press conference about the insufficient staffing levels at Cargolux.  The official LCGB press release is available here. Several newspapers as well as TV and radio stations were present and showed interest in the fact that Cargolux, while forecasting a three digit Million Dollar profit, is operating at minimum staff levels.

On 24 November 2017 these problems were already addressed in a letter sent to the CEO.
 
It was reiterated that considering legal limits as planning targets is neither safe nor sustainable and that hiring new employees, pilots and ground staff alike, has to commence immediately.
 
Since – given the current competitive market conditions – it will most likely not be possible to fill the budgeted positions by offering the current contracts, it was emphasized that both working conditions and remuneration packages need to be adjusted.  Especially the importance of additional flight time limitations that were included in the previous CWA and the necessity to implement safety recommendations, which were issued by the Cargolux in-house safety department was pointed out.

Please scroll down or click here to read more.

What are the current facts?
The recruiting of new pilots is going to be an issue. We see all regions around the globe in a similar situation.
 
There is no short-term solution to our problems. Even if new pilots are hired, even if the Company is able to fill budgeted position, due to many extra flights and additional pay by the hour aircraft we will have to fly these extra flights.
 
Furthermore, given the fact that other airlines offer stable rosters and respect their contracts, pilots leaving Cargolux may become a real concern in the near future. If you analyze the numbers carefully, you will find that in the past two years the net gain of flight-crew is only 8 recruited new first officers. Additionally, recruitment has previously been stopped several times for various reasons, e.g. at the height of the last CWA negotiations in 2015. 

With this net gain being so low the obvious pressure has been placed on the pilot group resulting in unstable, unrealistic and at times the legibility of published rosters could be questioned. The numbers we are seeing are close to 65% of the published rosters in the high season not resembling the actual flown rosters. The CWA is being eroded and interpretations are at the benefit of the company.

Following our last update on the 22 November 2017 we see that the flights are now crewed two days in advance. The result of this is that the problem has been shifted further down the line. We see that flights requiring augmented crews do not have the third pilot and some flights have no crew altogether.

This will continue to disrupt rosters even more, as they will try to fill the gaps.

Every pilot must consider these disruptions on the line and determine if it is affecting their sleep opportunities in order to be fit for the next duty or series of duties. Please bear in mind, that according to the OM-A, we have to be able to plan our rest in advance!

Solutions through negotiations will be one avenue. In the short term, these problems will have to be dealt with professionally by each crew member on the line by constantly assessing her/his alertness level, in order to protect the health and safety from potential fatigue. Please use our additional guidance on proactive fatigue reporting to assist you in making your decisions.

As always please email us with your concerns at cvboard@alpl.lu

Following up on our last update many of you have been asked for more details and how each of you can lessen the continuous disruption caused by the additional flying being done without sufficient crews.

Crew Shortage – Roster Stability (or Instability)
It is important to show you the trend of not crewed flights that is occurring two (2) days before the flights are scheduled to depart. What we see from the graph below, is that Cargolux is on average 10 pilots short per day which further confirms that shortage of between 50-95 pilots! You can also see that it is getting worse.

Click on the image to view in full size.

The Back to Back (B2B) issue as we have written in the past is being used as a standby system and again you can see from the graph above the extended use of this. Again, this causes a disruption on your ability to plan your rest and has the potential to cause fatigue on the next duty or series of duties. The Chief Pilot Office indicated that they have approval for this and when challenged to provide the proof, there was no reply!

Please use the ALPL guidance to mitigate the disruptive nature of the B2B after you have departed from Home Base.

As ALPL and as Delegates we have made this clear to the CEO and Chief Pilot Office about the respect of the CWA. No rectification has been received so far which has now required the LCGB to act. A letter was sent on Tuesday 21 November and will be followed up with the Inspection of Labor (ITM). If this does not resolve the problem, it will be taken further through the appropriate authorities.

What can you do?
No doubt you are receiving multiple roster changes. It does not help you by continuing to view the PBS or the iAIMS application and by accepting these continuous changes.

Home Base

• Once you have complied with the requirement to view the roster, there is no further need to do so.
• Your obligation then is to manage you rest before the scheduled flight.
• If you get a delayed report message from Crew Control, check that your legal FDP limits are respected.
• Politely inform Crew Control of any discrepancy

Downroute

• Same applies. Do not keep looking at the PBS or iAIMS for changes.
• The company has the obligation to inform you well in advance of any roster changes through the delayed reporting system.
• If you are sleeping for an upcoming duty when you receive this notification, assess if this delayed reporting will impact your fitness to operate the next duty.

The reason we provide this guidance is that once you accept any additional change, Crew Control moves on and possibly gives your flight to another pilot, and this continues, on and on, almost never-ending and probably coming back to you with a further change.

As always, please email us on cvboard@alpl.lu if you need further guidance.

Joint Venture Airline (JVA) – Henan Cargo Airlines
You may have heard through the media that yet again the JVA has been postponed until 2019 and with more uncertainties of how it will be crewed.

In late September and late October follow up meetings were held together with the CEO and the management pilots who are responsible for this project.  These meetings were foreseen after the issue we faced with a non-type rated Captain, earmarked for the JVA and planned to get his flying experience with Cargolux First Officers.

This individual issue was resolved and this pilot is no longer employed in Cargolux due to several reasons, one being the delay of the JVA commencement.

In these two meetings, an overview was presented on how and possibly when this airline would commence. The offer to train as Captains and temporary post (minimum three years) 15-18 First Officers from Cargolux Luxembourg to the JVA was still on the table.

However, the preferred aim still seems to be to employ pilots with wide body experience, type rate them on B747 and (which is still the most controversial point) to integrate them thereafter in the operation of Cargolux Luxembourg for the sake of getting line flying experience.

Although management stated that this path will not create any “negative” side effects for Cargolux Pilots, our concerns are as follows:

• Any external entry Captain will affect a First Officer in Cargolux waiting for his/her upgrade by extending their waiting time and subsequently delay a financial improvement during this time.
• Any external entry Captain will delay the internal upgrade process at Cargolux and therefore just shift the apparent problem of being understaffed just down the time line.

We asked and received clarification on what the hiring and training plan would be for Cargolux Luxembourg and the JVA.

When we as an ALPL Board met in October to discuss this issue we came up with very clear principles which were communicated at the last meeting; being

• All commands for Cargolux Luxembourg need to be completed prior to any training commencing for the JVA
• Training under supervision for non-type rated pilots can be completed in Luxembourg, however no flying the line at Cargolux Luxembourg
• Training for the Cargolux First Officers to be Captains at the JVA will mirror the then non-type rated pilots

Another concern affects those First Officers with temporary contracts awaiting to start at the JVA and whose contracts will expire at the end of 2018. What will be the plan thereafter to employ the required numbers for the JVA? How many temporary contracts will we see at Cargolux again, which are not at all solving our permanent understaffed problem?

Finally, in the aviation industry where news travels fast, disturbing facts are being received that the information being promised to these non-types rated pilots is contrary to the above principles communicated. A letter was sent to the CEO asking to confirm or deny these rumours. Please click here to view this letter.

We will keep you informed on the outcomes of our communication to the CEO.

Please find below an update regarding:

• CWA Noncompliance
• ALPL Website
• OM-A Delayed Reporting away from home base
• FDP Hotspots

CWA Noncompliance
After the “URGENT Member Update” email from 27 October 2017 we received even more reports from members regarding CWA noncompliance issues with their rosters.

The most widely reported issues are:

• the failure to comply with the roster publication limit of 30 min less of the maximum FDP limit for standard crew in case of new publication of a roster due to a change or an amendment.
• the unilateral decision to schedule a crew member into the CODs without requesting an agreement from the concerned pilot as is clearly stipulated in the CWA.
• the unilateral decision to schedule a crew member into the VAC days
• Business class travel not being booked when business class is available

A shocking discovery is the suspected manipulation of the EASA FTLs:

• the change of reporting times in AIMS to stay within the EASA FTL limits
• the planning of unrealistic turnaround times to artificially shorten the FDPs to remain within the EASA FTL limits
• allowing AIMS to display FDPs outside the EASA FTL limits with the possibility of the affected pilot to confirm this illegal change via the “Acknowledge Changes” button

These reports underpin ours concerns, that due to the failure of hiring enough crews and simultaneously introducing another power by the hour aircraft on the network the situation of an already unstable flight operation got even worse.  This is no surprise as Cargolux Luxembourg operation has 23 aircraft, with an average 23 to 25 pilots per aircraft means we would need 529 to 575 pilots. While the current seniority list is at 480!

It appears, that scheduled deviations from the CWA and the supported exceedance of duty and rest time limitations are being used as a “solution” to run an operation above capacity during the busiest period of the year.

Intentional deviations from the CWA made unilaterally by the company represents not only a lack of respect against the pilot community, especially when accompanied by the well-known intimidating statement “if you don´t like the change, contact your chief pilot”, but also a breach of contract.

Whilst the ALPL/LCGB are preparing legal steps against this highly questionable practice, every pilot is tasked to act responsible in his own area when defending his/her legal rights. We therefore urge everybody to inform crew control of any unilateral deviation from the CWA performed by the company and be extremely vigilant accepting roster changes exceeding the FLT limits. A polite email asking that the CWA be respected is the best form of communication and maybe required more than once.

This “planning to the limits and beyond” situation has also increased the fatigue levels of many pilots. Since crew fatigue impacting or potentially impacting their ability to perform safely their flight duties requires a mandatory report (Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1018), we urge every pilot to carefully evaluate a roster change situation under these considerations. Any doubt about the safety of a flight affected by fatigue, should be taken into account by requesting a different flight or crew augmentation or increased rest. In any case, a fatigue or pro-active fatigue report must be filed to Aviation Safety Department.

We, the ALPL board, would like to reiterate our call to bring any noncompliance from the CWA and EASA FTLs to our attention under cvboard@alpl.lu.

In case of any doubts, questions or need for help do not hesitate to contact us under the before mentioned email address for guidance. We will do our best to respond as soon as possible.

ALPL Website
We would like to invite and encourage everybody to visit our newly developed ALPL website and login in under “MY ALPL”. Please check your email from secretary@alpl.lu dated 9 August 2017 for access instructions.

Regarding the above-mentioned compliance issues and the self-interest to be planned according CWA, we have created to assist all members the “Know you CWA” series, which can be found under “PUBLICATIONS / Cargolux Board”. Not only that this series is a compressed recap of the “Work and Rest” chapter in the CWA, it provides examples of how to apply the different paragraphs in realistic scenarios.

Further information, especially in connection with the EASA FTL and their developments, can be found under “PUBLICATIONS / Executive Board” and “ECA Cockpit News”.

The “FORUM” represent a useful tool to share information amongst the pilot community, including board members, and to enter an open dialog with other members.

OM-A Delayed Reporting away from home base
After almost one year after the audit finding from the DAC-L that the “Delayed Reporting away from home base” paragraph in the Cargolux OM-A is not in line with the EASA FTLs and the recommendation to amend this paragraph accordingly in the OM-A revision we are still at status quo. Although the recent OM-A revision represents already a second revision in 2017, there was no change to the procedure so far.

Since our disruptive operation can quickly lead to a severe fatigue issue, e.g. when the delay happens during the rest of a concerned crew member without any possibility to amend the sleeping phase anymore, we recommend dealing very cautiously with this situation and consider informing Crew Control, copying in Dispatch, the local station and your fellow crew members with the request to amend the flight or increase the rest. Keep the request short and to the point and informing them that you will be sending a pro-active fatigue report.

We will definitely keep the pressure up on DAC-L to order Cargolux the implementation of an altered “Delayed Reporting away from home base” procedure, but in the meantime, every crew member is required to act responsibly by its own, when safety is in doubt.

We have also been informed that the delayed reporting procedure is also not being adhered to out of Home Base in some instances. Please inform us of these deviations so we can approach the authorities.

FDP Hotspots and EASA Live Data Gathering
With the large number of delays of flights, we see FDP hotspots extend to other flights such as;

• LUX – OVB planned as two pilots for a mid-morning departure, now departing after 1600Z with a FDP greater than 11 hours.
• PVG-OVB-LUX planned augmented three crew, departing during the day with startup slot times of nearly 2:30 and additional taxi times of more than 45 min, meaning the maximum 16 hour FDP would most likely be exceeded.

As a reminder to our previous updates, the hotspots where FDP’s are causing the, most amount of fatigue reports are

• Two sector augmented crew flights near the maximum FDP
• Standard Crew FDPs that operate to and from PANC and
• Standard Crew FDPs that approach the legal FDP limit and/or encroach the WOCL

To guarantee that a sufficient amount of quality data is collected within an operation such as the Cargolux one, we strongly recommend that you participate in the live data gathering. This is a great opportunity to potentially contribute to a change in European legislation affecting Flight and Duty Times.

Please contact the Cargolux FRMS team at frms@cargolux.com, in case you would like to take part in the data collection.

We have received numerous reports by our members that the Company is in violation of the CWA, both in the planning stage when rosters are published as well as during flight operations. We therefore would like to ask you to report ANY NON-COMPLIANCE to cvboard@alpl.lu. 

In your E-Mail please include as much evidence as you can. This will enable us to take action in the near future. Confidentiality will be assured if requested.

In his recent letter regarding the profit share, our CEO stated his concerns regarding staff numbers, safety and efficiency of our operation. What Mr. Forson might have missed is the fact that this has been our main concern since the beginning of the year.

Although these key issues have been pointed out by ALPL over and over again, he and Flight Operations Management failed to timely put measures into place to prevent a further deterioration of the situation. Furthermore, we have seen another aircraft placed into operations despite lacking crews to operate the current fleet.

In the past months, numerous recommendations made by the Aviation Safety Department in respect to;

• Two sector augmented crew flights near the maximum FDP
• Standard Crew FDPs that operate to and from PANC and
• Standard Crew FDPs that approach the legal FDP limit and/or encroach the WOCL

have been ignored. In addition, rosters are changing daily, further hindering every pilot’s ability to plan their rest. Also, Crew Control is sending block SMS messages to pilots on off-days asking whether they would like to work on their days off.

The CWA, with all its misgivings with an obvious advantage to management, is not being respected and flights are either planned into the CODs without the consent of the pilots, planned to arrive less than 12 hours before the first VAC day or rosters are changed without respecting rest or flight time limitations.

We are addressing this with Human Resources and asking them to ensure that the CWA is respected.

At the same time, it came to our attention, that members of EXCOM are appearing at the recurrent ground school, telling pilots, that they are not working enough and that management will try to align the old CWA working conditions with the new conditions in order to gain more efficiency. This gives an indication about the real focus and concerns regarding the staff and the actual disdain for the work carried out.

While other companies tried to counteract this pilot shortage by significantly improving pilot conditions with major two-digit salary increases, more time off and other benefits, this demeanor further deteriorates an already critical situation. The fact that even road-shows fail to raise a sufficient number of new First Officers who are willing to take on the challenge flying for Cargolux under the “new” conditions is an indication that we might have reached a tipping-point with respect to pilot work-load, CWA conditions and competitiveness of our remuneration package.

We ask you to remain vigilant. If you notice any roster non-conformity please send a polite email to Crew Control asking them to modify your roster to respect the CWA before you accept any changes.

Please also log into the new ALPL website where all relevant documents and Debrief videos have been uploaded for your reference. As always, if you have any questions we are doing our best to answer them as soon as we can. Send your concerns directly to cvboard@alpl.lu.