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Do pilots prefer to fly short haul or long haul flights?
Short haul would seem to be the better option since a pilot will experience more takeoffs and landings, but with long haul the opportunity to fly larger aircraft like the 777, 787 and soon to be available A350 present themselves.
Crews are paid for the amount of time the plane is "In Motion" From the time it push's from the gate, till the time they put the block on the tires when you get to the next gate. The time sitting at gate on short hauls changing out passengers the crews don't make money, but still are there, and working.
Crews are paid for the amount of time the plane is "In Motion" From the time it push's from the gate, till the time they put the block on the tires when you get to the next gate. The time sitting at gate on short hauls changing out passengers the crews don't make money, but still are there, and working.
Interesting. I wasn't expecting that the financial factor would play that big a role.
Crews are paid for the amount of time the plane is "In Motion" From the time it push's from the gate, till the time they put the block on the tires when you get to the next gate. The time sitting at gate on short hauls changing out passengers the crews don't make money, but still are there, and working.
Yup.
I fly primarily domestic US stuff, and do a mix of both short hops of under 2 hours and longer, up to 7 hours. While I don't do long haul international stuff, I vastly prefer longer legs for the above reason.
I am at work to make money, and endeavor to make as much as I can per commute to work. I can make more money in the same (or less) time, while doing less work on long(er) haul vs. short haul.
I'd much rather do 1 or 2, 3-6 hour domestic legs than 4-6, 1 hour hops.
Last edited by Tripower455; 03-29-2015 at 10:03 AM..
Yep, long haul routes/pairings are usually much more efficient in terms of work-to-pay ratio. Doing a bunch of short hop trips leads to quite a bit of unpaid work since we are only paid for flight time.
Yep, long haul routes/pairings are usually much more efficient in terms of work-to-pay ratio. Doing a bunch of short hop trips leads to quite a bit of unpaid work since we are only paid for flight time.
It is s shame pilots and crew are not paid for true time, seriously that is a system flaw and flight pricing does not seem to reflect this aspect
The situation in the Netherlands at least seems to differ. Pilots are permitted to fly a maximum 900 hours per annum which doesn't seem very much, but I suppose you have to take into account time spent during flight preparation.
Pilots have to undergo a medical every six months and should they fail that, then the "loss of licence insurance" kicks in which means that their salary will continued to be paid even if they won't be permitted to fly anymore. The airline is responsible for the cost of the policy.
Salaries appear to be fixed though with a mimimum quoted at €4,300 and a maximum €20,000 a month. There's no mention of non-salary payment if the pilot isn't actually flying. It would probably be unlawful in the Netherlands to employ pilots on that basis although I stand to correction on that point.
While they are all different, in the US, the vast majority of airlines pay by the block hour IE: from brake release to brake set. Ideally, the hourly block rate is enough to offset the length of duty day, but many pilots are grossly underpaid, considering their training, experience and amount of liability they shoulder every time they put their name in the logbook.
Many have some sort of "duty rig" in place to cover sit time in the event of cancellations etc.. Duty rigs are there to encourage the company to schedule the pilots efficiently, and to compensate the pilots for long sit times.
Hmmmmmm, I would think that answer might go like this:
"Long Haul flights are wonderful if there is a john on board, but if not, then short hauls are the way to go!"
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