Originally Posted by
jtf560
NJA is only better to NJE for pay. Your work rules are vastly better and lead to much more reasonable scheduling overall. I understand that it may not seam all that great to those living it, but you would be horrified flying the same airplane under the NJA work rules.
I can't agree. A lot of things beyond pay are better at NJA, in my opinion. Your default roster is a 7/7. In Europe it's 6/5 on every fleet but the Global where it is 7/6. When we take seven days vacation we do NOT get 21 days away from work like someone at NJA on the 7/7 does. We get an eleven day break when we take seven days vacation. Sixteen when we take ten. And we cannot book more than that in the summer. We have less access to part time (such as your CC52) and it's not awarded by seniority. Neither is vacation. Your tour based pay comes without strings attached and is year-round. Ours is only four to six months per year and you have to give up something in order to qualify. Ok, that last one was pay-related. Yes, we do have more restrictive flight duty and rest rules but we frequently fly long days (12+ hours) just like you guys. 60 hours duty in 6 days is the legal limit but also the target for NJE scheduling. And it can be exceeded on the last day while airlining home (with agreement of the crew member). I'm pretty sure we use the same fatigue risk management system in i-jet as you guys. Three or four legs a day are standard. Five are very rare. Yes, I think you guys are a more productive in terms of hours flown per day but I think flying domestic in the U.S. is significantly easier than flying intra-Europe. Here there is no single airspace sytem, single level of ATC, not a decent FBO at every airport. In Europe airport slots at every major airport are a given as are air traffic control slots (CTOTs) similar to your EDCTs. But here they are the rule during most of summer and peak days whilst in the U.S. they are relatively rare and usually limited to a certain geographic operating area such as Florida around Christmas. Italian, Spanish, Greek, French etc ATC is not the same as the service you get in the States. Oh, and there is airport security everywhere, even at FBOs. What a pain. I'm not saying the job at NJA is easy. I'm sure some days it can be harder than at NJE. But I'm pretty sure overall NJA is the better job.