Fellow LAX Pilots,

The June pairing set brings significant block hour increases and flights to our base. While we welcome the beginning of a return to normalcy, it is clear that this pairing set includes a significantly heavier redeye load and includes new departure times that transit the entire WOCL. Your LEC is concerned that this could indicate a return to the pre-COVID scheduling practices that have proven time and again to be problematic for LAX pilots on multiple levels.

A few things to keep in mind here. First, while we see serious flaws in the construction of many of these pairings, the pairing set has been verified as contractually compliant. Second, there is no reason to expect this trend to go away as this is the third time since October 2018 that we’ve seen a foray into pairings in the WOCL, multiple WOCL flights, and the dangerous “circadian flips” that we have all dealt with on the west coast for too long. Finally, as distressing as it is to see the company repeatedly traffic in these fatigue-inducing schedules that are so debilitating and contrary your physical and mental well-being, ALPA volunteers remain ever-vigilant, and will utilize all the tools we have to combat these unsound scheduling practices. We all know the scientifically-proven facts: acute fatigue can be easily induced, is cumulative, and can become a chronic condition which negatively impacts your mental health and quality of life.

We recommend that anytime fatigue is an issue, each pilot should make a self-evaluation. After all, we are required to certify that we are fit for duty prior to every leg. Documentation of fatigue events, whether a callout event or diagnosed in flight, is a vital tool for your System Scheduling committee to help identify and adjust pairings that create fatigue issues. We cannot stress this too highly.