Originally Posted by
ryeflyer
Good question Lee M! This next few months will see all of this addressed, but I do worry about what the UAL CBA Terms & Conditions will give up. The European flying at UA is 100% 767 with a first class bed for the crew rest facility in BOTH directions. CAL is a two class operation from what I can tell, with #3 only used on Westbounds over 8. No disrespect, but I can see "min fuel" and a poorly rested crew on the Westbounds from EUR into IAD. They had a chronic min fuel situation going into EWR according to their safety committee, why so would IAD arrivals be any better.
Watching with interest. R
Not using the IRO both ways is a disgrace, but your generalizations are not quite right. About 1/2 of our eastbound europe use 3 man crews. There isn't a good reason why some do and some don't. The min fuel stereotype is way overblown. It happened a lot at the beginning, but for whatever reason things have been much better. Just flew last week block 9:10 and landed with 10k which is pretty good in a 75.