Originally Posted by phil squares
We do have long trips. However, there are shorter ones too. Last week I did a 5 day trip to MEL. Operate in on Tuedsay, off Wed, Thurs leave late Friday night and arrive SIN on Sat am. I have trip on Tuesday that is 12 days. It's ICN-ANC-ORD-BRU-BOM-SIN.
The nice thing about long trips is the time off after the trip. I will have 6 days off minimum at the end of the 12 day trip. On the average, I have been off about 13 days/ month.
As far as rostering goes, it's really depends on what you consider a "good" roster. Most of the cargo trips are on the longer side, with longer layovers. But, all in all, you don't really work too hard.
Six legs in 12 days and around-the-world to boot. The EK wankers would be kicking up a storm with that
. We used to have an 8 day trip that went DXB-SIN-BNE-AKL-BNE-SIN-DXB with 24 hours off at each stop. I love the AKL layover, but the last two flights coming back to DXB really hurt. Moving out of a hotel every 24 hours gets tiring after about 4 days. In contrast we also used to have an 11 day trip that went DXB-SIN-MEL-three AKL shuttles-SIN-DXB. Seven nights in the same hotel in MEL with 48 hours off on either side of the 3 AKL shuttle. It was a fantastic trip with no where near as much fatigue as the 8 day trip.
The bigger contrast can be seen between the two companies in regards to time off after such a trip. At EK it would be a minimum of two days off. SQ has the advantage there, no doubt. At EK you could only be rostered for one of those trips per month, but a lot of the Aussies would try to trade for two to get more time at home.
TP