easyJet manuals
5. Flight Time Limitations Scheme 1. Definitions
Duty period: Any continuous period where a crew member is required to carry out a task associated with easyJet business.
Flight duty period: The period between reporting to operate a flight or series of flights and the on blocks time of the last sector operated.
Day off: A period of at least 34 hours that is free from duty and contains two consecutive local nights, a local night being a period of 8 hours in the period 22:00 to 08:00 local time.
Discretion event: The use of either commander's or individual's discretion to re-duce a rest period, extend a duty period, ignore a cumulative limit or rere-duce a report time.
5.2. Days Off
For crew operating under the "easyJet Variation Phase IV" (a.k.a 5/4/5/3), FTL days off restrictions will always be satisfied by the fixed pattern, even when a day off has been violated by a delay on the last day of a block of late duties.
The rostering agreement specifies that 10 days off must be achieved in the 28 day reserve period, 3 of these being the final three days. In addition the variation specifies that two consecutive days off must be achieved within any 10 day period and that two consecutive days off must be achieved after any 7 consecutive duties.
Crew who are not operating under a variation require 7 days off in 4 consecutive weeks and 24 days off in 12 consecutive weeks. No more that 7 days can be worked between days off, and two consecutive days off must be achieved in any 14 day period.
Section 5.5, “Consecutive night, early start and late finish duties” details addi-tional days off restrictions for consecutive duties which overlap the period 01:00L to 06:59L.
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Ignoring days off restrictions
The commander may, at his discretion, choose to allow the violation of days off restrictions.
The company may, due to unforseen circumstances, position a crew member back to base when this forms their eighth consecutive duty.
5.3. Required rest
For flight crew, the rest required before operating a duty is 12 hours or the length of the previous duty period, whichever is greater. For cabin crew, the rest required is one hour less than the flight crew.
Reducing required rest
At home base, flight crew may, at their discretion, reduce their required rest period by a maximum of one hour providing that the rest period is still at least 12 hours.
Cabin crew may similarly reduce their rest providing the rest period is still at least 11 hours. All crew members must inform the commander at the start of a duty if individual discretion has been used to reduce rest.
When not at home base:
• The commander may, at his discretion, reduce rest by an unlimited amount provided that at least 10 hours are spent in suitable accommodation.
• Where a commander is not available, such as when a crew has split, individuals may, at their own discretion, also reduce rest by an unlimited amount provided that at least 10 hours are spent in suitable accommodation. The commander in charge of the subsequent duty period must be informed of this occurance prior to the first sector.
• Where the preceding duty was less than 12 hours, easyJet may roster a reduction in rest equal to the amount that actual total accommodation transfer time was less than two hours, up to a maximum of one hour.
Exercise of discretion to reduce rest must be reported on the journey log of the subsequent duty. If the reduction is greater than one hour, a Discretion Report form must also be completed to allow CAA audit.
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15 There are additional limitations if the rest reduction forms part of a series of dis-cretion events.
5.4. Maximum Flight Duty
The maximum allowable flight duty for flight crew is governed by the number of sectors flown and the report time in local time:
Table 2. Maximum flight duty
Sectors a
Local time 1 2 3 4
06:00 - 07:59 13:00 12:15 11:30 10:45
08:00 - 12:59 14:00 13:15 12:30 11:45
13:00 - 1759 13:00 12:15 11:30 10:45
18:00 - 21:59 12:00 11:15 10:30 9:45
22:00 - 05:59 11:00 10:15 9:30 9:00
aFor 5 or more sectors, refer to the full table in EOM-A 7.1.12.8
The maximum allowable duty for cabin crew is one hour longer than the flight crew.
Increasing maximum flight duty
The commander may, at his discretion, increase the maximum flight duty detailed in Table 2, “Maximum flight duty” by up to 2 hours. If required by a delay occur-ing duroccur-ing the turnaround before the final sector of a duty, the maximum flight duty may be extended by a further hour. Whenever this discretion is used it must be reported via the journey log. Where the discretion is greater than two hours a Discretion Report Form must also be completed to allow mandatory reporting to the CAA. There are additional conditions when exercising this discretion as part of a sequence of discretion events.
Reporting times may be delayed by up to 4 hours if the crew member is informed of the change before leaving their place of rest. In this case the report time used in Table 2, “Maximum flight duty” will be the original report time, but the flight
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duty will be deemed to start at the delayed report time. Where a delay is greater than 4 hours, the more restrictive of the original and delayed report time will be used when calculating max FDP, and the flight duty will be deemed to have commenced 4 hours after the original report time.
Where a flight duty is scheduled such that a rest period of between 3 and 10 con-secutive hours may be taken between sectors, the company can increase the max-imum flight duty by one half of that rest period. If this method is used, any po-sitioning journeys count as sectors. The allowance for inter-sector pre and post flight duties and the type of accommodation required are specified in EOM-A 7.1.13.
easyJet has also negotiated FTL exemptions that allow the maximum flight duty lengths in Table 2, “Maximum flight duty” to be extended by either 30 minutes or 60 minutes at the planning stage. To utilise either of these exemptions a long list of conditions (detailed in EOM-A 7.1.12.9) must be met. Affected duties are annotated on rosters.
5.5. Consecutive night, early start and late finish duties
If any part of a duty falls within the period 02:00 to 04:59 local time, then it is a "night duty". Consecutive night duties are only allowed with the following resitrictions:
• If two consecutive night duties are scheduled, the preceding duty must finish by 23:59 local time.
• If three consecutive night duties are scheduled, the preceding duty must finish by 21:00.
• If four or five consecutive night duties are scheduled, the Table 2, “Maximum flight duty” limits are replaced by an 8 hour limit, regardless of sectors; in addition, 24 hours rest must be taken prior to the series and 54 hours rest must be taken post the series.
No more than three consecutive duties are allowed where any part of a duty falls within the period 01:00 to 06:59, nor will more than 4 such duties occur within any 7 day period. There are the following exceptions to this rule:
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• Crew operating under the "easyJet Variation Phase IV" (a.k.a 5/4/5/3) may op-erate four or five consecutive "early start duties" where max flight duty is as per Table 2, “Maximum flight duty”. Only one of the series may have a report time between 03:00 and 04:59 and that duty must be 2 sectors or less. In addition, 2 days off must be achieved before any series of 4 early starts, 3 days off must be achieved before any series of 5 early starts and 72 hours must be achieved after either series. The rostering agreement further stipulates that 4 days off must be achieved before any block of earlies in the fixed pattern. Generally, a maximum of 5 consecutive FDPs is allowable under this variation, but exceptionally a sixth may be operated in accordance with the terms in EOM-A 7.3.3.8.
• Crew not operating under a variation may operate four or five consecutive "ear-ly start duties" where the Table 2, “Maximum flight duty” limits are replaced by a 9 hour limit, regardless of sectors; in addition, 24 hours rest must be taken prior to the series and 63 hours rest must me taken post the series.
Any run of consecutive night, early start or late finish duties can be broken by a period of 34 hours free from such duties.
Note
The definition of an "early start duty" is inconsistent between EOM-A 7.1.4.7 and the variation approval, but my interpretation is a duty that commences between 01:00 and 06:59
Ignoring consecutive night, early start and late finish duty limits
The commander may, at his discretion, allow violation of any of the consecutive night, early start and late finish duty limits.
5.6. Cumulative limits
Table 3, “Cumulative limits” shows the cumulative duty time and block time lim-itations applicable to flight crew operating under the "easyJet Variation Phase IV" (a.k.a 5/4/5/3) and to cabin crew operating without variations:
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Table 3. Cumulative limits
Flight Crew Cabin Crew
Period Duty
hours
Block hours
Duty hours
Block Hours
7 days 55 ab 60 c
14 days 95 db 105
28 days 190 100 210
12 weeks 480 270
6 months 550
9 months 750
12 months 1880 900
aCan be increased to 60 hours where unforseen delays occur on the day of operation.
bThis limitation is in the Rostering and Crewing Agreement, amended 01/08/2008, which supercedes the limit in EOM-A 7.3.3.4.
cCan be increased to 65 hours where unforseen delays occur in a duty block.
dCan be increased to 100 hours where unforseen delays occur on the day of operation.
Duty time spent on "contactable" does not count towards cumulative duty hours, nor does a "duty break" of over 6 hours (but less than minimum rest) in suitable accommodation prior to positioning home. When not called out, time spent on standby during the period 22:00 to 08:00 local time only counts half.
Ignoring cumulative limits
The commander, at his discretion, may allow violation of any cumulative limit.
In this case a Discretion Report Form must be completed to allow CAA audit.
5.7. Standby
The maximum planned standby duration is 12 hours.
In general, the local time used to determine max flight duty in Table 2, “Maximum flight duty” will be the most restricting of standby start time and report time. If, however, both standby start time and report time occur in the period 22:00-08:00, report time is used.
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19 The maximum flight duty must be reduced by the amount that the time between starting the standby and reporting exceeds 6 hours.
A "contactable" is a special case of standby. It's duration must be less than an hour, it must occur between 06:00L and 22:00L and the minimum time between call out and report must be 10 hours. The required rest period after a contactable is reduced to 10 hours, and the time spent on contactable does not count towards cumultive duty limits.
5.8. Transitions
A "morning start duty" (MSD) is a duty with a report time between 03:00L and 09:29L. An "evening finish duty" (EFD) is either a duty finishing between 18:00L and 03:00L or a duty with a report time between 18:00L and 03:00L that finishes between 03:00L and 17:59L. A transition occurs when an EFD occurs immedi-ately after an MSD or vice versa. It is possible for a single duty to be both an MSD and an EFD, and this also constitutes a transition.
When crew are operating under the "easyJet Variation Phase IV" (a.k.a 5/4/5/3), only one transition is allowed per duty block. In addition, the August 2009 Ros-tering resolution prohibits transitions on day 5 of a duty block, and easyJet has made a commitment via pmail to limit rostered transitions to one per month.
5.9. Pre and post flight duties
For normal flight duty periods, a minimum of 1 hour must be planned for pre-flight duties, and a minimum of 30 minutes planned for post pre-flight duties. For training and positioning refer to EOM-A 7.1.12.
The practice of using non-standard reporting times to move a duty into a less limiting FDP band is prohibited.
The commander may, at his discretion, reduce these times. The company may not. If the commander reduces standard reporting time by more than 15 minutes, a Discretion Report form must be completed to allow CAA audit.
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