New BOS A330 base coming - Page 11 (2024)

crewdawg

Joined APC: Jul 2006

Posts: 5,700

Ya but don't think they won't try to get away with 2 pilot crews when they can. I never experienced it as a scheduled trip, but did have it happen when the other FO got sick in Europe. We flew to BOS as a 2 mam crew to pick up a new crew to finish the trip. I'm sure they'll try, have it bite them, and try again lol.

GivemeVSP

Joined APC: Jan 2014

Posts: 232

Why does the flight have to depart at 10am? What’s keeping management from adjusting it to a 1 or 2pm departure? They could easily do that with the number of departures per day out of these places. Just send ATL back early with the 3 man crew.

iaflyer

Joined APC: Oct 2006

Position: 73N A

Posts: 3,728

Network connections. Also, there are already 3 flights a day CDG-ATL on Delta (9am, noon and 4pm), so along with 3 that AF flies (10:30, 2pm and 5:30pm, they are scattered throughout the day.

Gone Flying

Joined APC: Sep 2015

Position: UNA

Posts: 4,526

1)spare crews are a lot easier to find and get into place in the US
2) there are not steep fines for controllable delays within the US.

they may try, but what I was responding to is why flights currently on the schedule for less than 8 block are still scheduled with 3 pilots.

Gone Flying

Joined APC: Sep 2015

Position: UNA

Posts: 4,526

it does not have to, and I have flow DUB-BOS as a 2 pilot crew and it was scheduled for the afternoon for that reason. But typically flights leave Europe earlier than that for BOS/JFK.

Any flight that leaves mainland EU before 12:30pm or the British isles before 11:30am is going to have little to no room for delay if flown 2 pilot, and therefore will probably be flown with 3 even if under 8 block on the return flight

sailingfun

Joined APC: Feb 2008

Posts: 19,510

What you have listed is correct. The duty day limit is a issue. When 117 first came out we flew most of the UK with two man crews. 117 changed the block limit from 8 to 9 and the forum panicked that most of Europe would be two man crews. Reliability would have dropped. The actual result of 117 was we have more not less 3 man crews. We do however have two man crews on some BOS flights. I am sure the company can run a flight history on each route and quickly figure out if a two man crew will work. Currently CDG is blocked at 8:00 so legal for two contractually. Any delays however would result in a duty day timeout. Until the 330 base in BOS gets fully staffed and running no one here knows. If they do staff with 3 another issue is will they dispatch with two if a FO calls out sick or has a commute failure. Not sure how that might work contractually. I did once have a FO pulled from my BOS flight in Europe to cover a sick FO on the ATL flight and was told it was legal.

Red Swingline

Joined APC: Aug 2014

Posts: 118

They have departure screens for next summer up already?

“A quick look at next summer for dtw…”

NWA4LIFE

Joined APC: Jun 2024

Posts: 13

its pretty top secret -I go on travelnet and look as far out as it can go and type in the city

iaflyer

Joined APC: Oct 2006

Position: 73N A

Posts: 3,728

Well I did miss the "next" summer part, but really, DTW doesn't add much in the way of int'l flights. It's been a looong time since a new European destination has been added on the Int'l side. I think Munich was the last one, and that was added in 2016.

Hotel Kilo

Joined APC: Jan 2023

Posts: 1,445

More or less. That's why I posted earlier maybe BOS-LHR-BOS might get away with 2 person crew. The rest most likely not.

They know the stats. I don't see many of the BOS-XXX-BOS trips (maybe other than LHR) being anything but 3 person crews. Especially wintertime heading west bound. I guess we'll see soon enough once they start constructing the bid packs for BOS originating flights.