ETStar From Canada, joined Jan 2004, 2103 posts, RR: 9 Posted (4 years 1 month 1 week 5 days 5 hours ago) and read 6578 times:
While the rules differ from one country to another in terms of duty/flight times, what are the known longest single-crew (flight, cabin or both), nonstop or multi-stop duty/flight times out there?
With the ultra long hauls, do airlines carry two sets of crew or something like 1.5? How about the multi-stops?
BAW217 From United Kingdom, joined Jun 2007, 116 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (4 years 1 month 1 week 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 6507 times:
The following figures are from the UK CAA publication CAP371 (The avoidance of fatigue in aircrews) Airlines normally have a more restrictive duty linitations.
Duty period depends on number of planned sectors and the time the crew went "on duty"
The maximum number of hours is 14hrs.
To operate for 14hrs the following needs to be achieved:
Firstly the crew must be "Acclimatised" to the local time zone which means the crew have spent 3 local nights in the departure airport's time zone, or a crew member who has had the required rest but has only operated thier last sector (prior to going on rest) within a time zone area of + or - 2 hrs of local time. Eg LHR-DME-LHR-TXL - Nightstop - TXL-LHR. This crew member is still said to be acclimatised to the local time zone.
Secondly the crew can only report between 0800-1259 Local time and only operating 1 sector to use the full 14hrs of duty. (You will not find a carrier out there who allows 1 crew to operate 14hrs)
The more sectors you do, the less hours you can operate. The earlier/later you report in the day also reduces your hours. The best time to report is between 0800-1259 Local (for UK regs).
If you are not acclimatised your hours are greatly reduced.
Crews can operate "split duty" where the crew have at least 3 hours of uninterrupted rest, they can then re-claim half of that rest period (90 mins in this case) and use them to bolster thier crew hours.
On Long Haul flights, I know of an airline with the following procedure for flight deck crew:
From Report to off duty
0-9 Hrs 1 Flight Deck Crew
9-12 Hrs 1 Flight Deck Crew plus a Senior FO or second captain
12Hrs+ 2 Flight Deck Crews
PlymSpotter From Spain, joined Jun 2004, 11144 posts, RR: 63 Reply 2, posted (4 years 1 month 1 week 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 6507 times:
On ULH flights there is at least one relief pilot, I've been on some flights were there have been two. On some of the indirect routes, like EK's DXB-BKK-HKG for instance, the crew will operate DXB-BKK one day, then BKK-HKG-BKK the following day, and then finally BKK-DXB the day after, whilst other airlines base dedicated crew to operate these sectors, such as LAN Chile for their MAD-FRA-MAD flights, who have crew based in MAD who only work this flight - it must get a bit boring to be honest.
I think one of the longest duties ever carried out was FlyGlobespan's MAN-CPT-MAN. I seem to recall they flew with a relief pilot, but only put down in CPT for minimum rest (15 hours IIRC)before the same crew flew the aircraft straight back again. Needless to say it wasn't popular and many people didn't think it was safe either.
Chapavaeaa From United States of America, joined Aug 2008, 144 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (4 years 1 month 1 week 5 days 3 hours ago) and read 6410 times:
Maybe someone from CO could comment but I think the HNL-GUM island hopper flight that makes 5 or 6 stops might be up in the top 10 as far as crew duty time. Considering the area of operations it would probably rank up there in terms of difficulty as well.
Zkpilot From New Zealand, joined Mar 2006, 4739 posts, RR: 10 Reply 4, posted (4 years 1 month 1 week 4 days 15 hours ago) and read 6007 times:
Qantas (QF) operates several flights over 13 hours in length... the LAX-MEL flight being the longest at over 15 hours. In a disrupt/delay situation this flight can often end up being a duty of up to 20 hours for the crew (often stops off for fuel in SYD enroute for example). This is done with 1 set of cabin crew. The tech crew however are often swapped out (in say SYD in a diversion) to make sure they don't run out of hours etc.
Dispatchguy From United States of America, joined Jan 2006, 1185 posts, RR: 2 Reply 5, posted (4 years 1 month 1 week 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 5930 times:
For US domestic carriers, single crew no augmentation is 8 hours block time between duty periods. Due to the Whitlow ruling, the maximum duty period for a domestic crew is 16 hours.
Start augmenting crew, and your max duty times go up dramatically; however, US carriers don't augment a domestic crew. The HNLGUM CO Island Hopper is done under US Flag rules.
The longest US flight time is BOMATL westbound on DL. I have seen BOMATL flight times north of 17 hours - with double augmentation (two sets of 2 pilots). If there is a delay of over 2 hours at BOM, or if they had to divert somewhere like for a gas-n-go, they cant remain there for over 2 hours or the crew will time out.
Traveladdict From Malaysia, joined Feb 2009, 45 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (4 years 1 month 1 week 4 days 11 hours ago) and read 5711 times:
A few months ago I flew CX HKG-YYZ which was 15 hours to begin with but we made a detour to Edmonton, Alberta because a woman was very ill. The crew were on the plane about 18 hours total.
Rdwootty From United Kingdom, joined Sep 2005, 900 posts, RR: 2 Reply 8, posted (4 years 1 month 1 week 2 days 9 hours ago) and read 5155 times:
There are many charter flights to Egypt from UK that have 5/12 hour flying time out and 66 back. with crew re[porting this must be near the knuckle on bad weather days
Oh how i wish these flights would be illigal!! We in the Uk go as far as Cape Verde and come straight back. 6 hours there and 6 hours back over an hour on the ground, 1 hour 30 mins before take off and an hour after landing back into the UK. That can be well over 16 hours on a bad day and all we need is 15 hours rest and then we are off again to another fun packed destination.
Fly2CHC From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 10, posted (4 years 1 month 1 week 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 4769 times:
Imagine the trip times in the old days. A BA cabin crew who was rostered on LHR-MCT-SIN-PER-CHC-AKL-PER-SIN-MCT-LHR bust have been away from homebase for weeks!
LongHauler From Canada, joined Mar 2004, 4281 posts, RR: 36 Reply 11, posted (4 years 1 month 1 week 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 4683 times:
Quoting 777Heaven (Reply 9): Oh how i wish these flights would be illigal!! We in the Uk go as far as Cape Verde and come straight back. 6 hours there and 6 hours back over an hour on the ground, 1 hour 30 mins before take off and an hour after landing back into the UK.
Interestingly enough, at AC, these types of crew pairings go the most senior. YYZ-BGI-YYZ is a 13:45 hour duty day, with about 11:45 hours of credit. So in a normal month, you only work 7, sometimes 8 days. Long days, granted. But looking at a block with 22/23 days off is hard to pass up!
Start throwing vacation time in there, and its a pretty easy life.
Never gonna grow up, never gonna slow down .... Barefoot Blue Jean Night
Speedbird0125 From United States of America, joined Mar 2008, 183 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (4 years 2 weeks 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 3873 times:
Kimberlyrj From United Kingdom, joined Mar 2008, 385 posts, RR: 1 Reply 13, posted (4 years 2 weeks 5 days 8 hours ago) and read 3711 times:
I heard from a BA pilot that back in the 80’s Air Europe (UK) would fly from LGW to BJL (Gambia) then have 1 hour 30 minutes turn around and then fly back. He said the normal flight time was around 5 hours 45 minutes to 6 hours each way and was operated nonstop by a Boeing 757-200.
Back in 1996 I flew with Monarch Airlines on an Airbus A300-600R from LGW to BJL (then two weeks later flew BJL to LGW). The flight time was 6 hours on the nose going out and just under 5 hours and 50 minutes on the return. I remember over hearing one cabin crew member saying he only had just under 24 hours off before flying to Luxor, which is another long sector – flown by a Boeing 757-200 at the time.
As for multi stops, well surely the LCC airliners pick this award up? Or some charter airlines in the height of the summer season?
When I worked for Caledonian Airways (just before they became JMC) in the height of the summer season I would have some very long days, for example a classic was LGW to DLM to LGW to IBZ to LGW, or LGW to KGS to LGW to IBZ to LGW... All of which would make for a very long day which took the crew very close to their flying limits.
While working for Caledonian Airways, which was a charter airline, it was hard work, long hours but I loved it and if they had not changed to JMC I would still be working for them now...
Zappbrannigan From Australia, joined Oct 2008, 247 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (4 years 2 weeks 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 3688 times:
Quoting Zkpilot (Reply 4): Qantas (QF) operates several flights over 13 hours in length... the LAX-MEL flight being the longest at over 15 hours. In a disrupt/delay situation this flight can often end up being a duty of up to 20 hours for the crew (often stops off for fuel in SYD enroute for example). This is done with 1 set of cabin crew. The tech crew however are often swapped out (in say SYD in a diversion) to make sure they don't run out of hours etc.
Good ol' QF94... last time I was on this flight, we indeed diverted to SYD due to stronger-than-forecast winds, and both the tech and cabin crews ran out of hours on the ground - hence another 2 hour delay while we waited for standby crews to arrive.
QF94 pretty much pushes the limits of the B747 - QF are the only airline operating the 400ER in passenger ops, as far as I'm aware - QF94 frequently departs LAX at MTOW and diversions to BNE/SYD, while not the norm, happen a fair bit. Couldn't attempt it with a standard B744.
Sponsor Message: 
From Canada, joined Jan 2004, 2103 posts, 
From United Kingdom, joined Jun 2007, 116 posts, 
From Spain, joined Jun 2004, 11144 posts, 
From United States of America, joined Aug 2008, 144 posts, 
From New Zealand, joined Mar 2006, 4739 posts, 
From Malaysia, joined Feb 2009, 45 posts, 
From Australia, joined Oct 2008, 247 posts, 
Sponsor Message: 
Printer friendly format
