Airline Pilot Schedules
Here are various schedules of pilots based on equipment type and the position the
pilot holds.
Regional and national airlines operate under FAR part 121. This sets a
groundwork of rules and regulations that establish duty time and hours that can
be scheduled to fly eight hours in a day, a total of 100 hours during a month,
and not to exceed 1,000 hours in a year. These are scheduled times, which
means that a pilot may be scheduled to fly 7:45 hours in a day, but with Air
Traffic Control (ATC) delays, weather, and headwinds the actual time may be
more. Another restriction is that a pilot may not fly more than 30 hours
in any consecutive seven days.
What's a Line Bid?
Life as an airline pilot starts out each month with a "line bid". This is
usually done by logging onto the company's computer system and placing a bid for
a schedule, called a line, in order of most favorite to least favorite.
There can be anywhere from 100 to 800 lines to look at, so the process may take
some time. At many airlines, there is software that helps the pilot sort
the lines according to different choices such as hours of flying, days off, and
more. After the bidding time is over, typically two to four days, the
company sorts out who gets what based on their seniority in the pilot list.
Therefore, the number one pilot on seniority will get his/her first choice;
whereas, the pilot at the bottom of the list may get a less favorable line
awarded. Once the line has been awarded the pilot can log on again and see
what the month looks like, as well as see the pairing numbers (those are the
codes that identify a pairing of flights). Those pilots who are on reserve
will see what reserve line they were awarded and can see what their call out
time is, as well as what days they have off. Though the rules of bidding
and some terminology is different at various airlines, the general idea remains
the same.
How shedules look and work at a National/Regional airline
What's a Reserve Line?
Here is a view of what a reserve line would look like for someone bidding on a
schedule. At most regional/national airlines reserve pilots have a "call
out" time, that is a time for which the pilot is responsible for being within a
two hour distance from the airport. During a reserve pilot's call out
time, the airline scheduler may call and assign a trip. The pilot at many
airlines has about 15 minutes to call the company scheduler back before the trip
is assigned to the next reserve pilot and a "miss trip" is given to the initial
pilot. Most reserve call out periods cover a 12-18 hour time period each
day. Here is what a typical reserve schedule looks like. The green
days are "work days" and the number in the green day identifies the call out
time. For instance, "R4" might be 0330-1830. As you can see, a
reserve pilot in this bid period is guaranteed 11 days off. The box on the
right shows some codes to help pick a favorable line. "DO" means Days Off,
"WE" means Weekend days off, "CR" means Credit Hours - this is the guarantee a
reserve pilot will get whether or not he/she flies five hours that month or 75
hours; however, if you fly over the minimum guarantee you will be paid the
actual amount.
Click to enlarge
What's a Hard Line?
As a pilot's seniority gets higher in the list of pilots at an airline he/she is
able to hold a more desirable schedule. What most pilots try to get is a
"hard line". This means your month does not have on call days, but rather
a set schedule of work days and flights. Below is an example of a hard
line. In this example the "bid period" is from April 2 to May 1. As
you can see some bid periods carry over into the following bid period. The
days that are blocked our are trips. Each trip can be anywhere from one to
four days long. In this line, all of the trips are four days long with
exception to the first trip , which is three days long. Below a trip is
the pairing number that identifies what groups of flights it is, then a pilot
can look up each trip in detail. This line is number 678, that means if
you are the 678 pilot in seniority or higher you can hold this line, provided
that pilot numbers 1-677 doesn't want it. The information below the line
shows the details. This is line 678; it is a regular line (not reserve)
worth 86 hours and 20 minutes of pay and has 12 days off, of which none are on a
weekend. You will be away from your base/home 366 hours, and your duty
time is a total of 149 hours. The rest you can figure out as ratios of
work to time off, or pay time to work time. As you can see, you might be
gone from home for 19 days and only be paid for 86 hours and 20 minutes.
It's how thins work at an airline. There are good and bad points to this
type of work, but it's important to make sure you understand how it works.
Click to enlarge
What does a typical workday look like?
First, we will look at a typical four-day pairing for a pilot of junior to mid
level seniority at a large regional airline. This trip starts on day one
with a 12:45 report time for a 13:45 departure to Madison, WI. That day
has a total, scheduled duty time of 7hr 55min and the layover, or rest period,
is a total of 13hr 05 min. The next day, you will start off with a 09:45
report time, also called a show time. This day has the pilot working four
legs, 5hr 58min flight time, and 11hr 49min of duty time. The rest period
for this day is only 10hr 51min. On day three, the show time is at 08:25
and includes a four-leg day with 5hr 53min of flight time with a 12hr 19min duty
day due to thelayovers at Cleveland and Albany. At the end of the day, a
short, reduced rest period of 9hr 31min is scheduled and noted as reduced rest
with (R2). The final day begins with a 06:15 show time and five legs of
flying, totaling 6hr 59min. The duty day is scheduled at 10hr 15min and
terminates this pairing at 16:30 on day four. Provided there are no
operational delays and little weather to contend with this is what a pilot could
expect to fly. The compensatory rest required after a reduced rest period
will not be seen because it will occur on the following day, day five, which is
not a duty day for this pilot. This trip will pay 23hrs 46min of flight
time, with a total of 75hrs 45min away from pase. This results in a trip
ratio of .31 hours paid per hour away from base or a duty ratio of .51 hours
paid per hour of duty.
Click to enlarge
Next, we will look at a pairing for a pilot who has lots of seniority at the
airline. This will vary at each airline, but at most carrieres it takes
several years to get to the top third of the pilot seniority list for their
position.
Here is a look at what a four-day pairing would look like if you reach the top
of the seniority list. You can see that on day one you have three legs and
a 30hr 41in layover in Veracruz, Mexico. The day starts at 14:10 and ends
at 23:34. That's a long day, but the layover in Mexico is not so bad.
On day three (that's right you stayed in Mexico for a day) you start off at
06:15 and fly two legs, ending up in St. Louis for the overnight at 13:35.
20hrs 20min later you leave St. Louis and fly three legs ending up back in
Newark where you finish at 22:34. This trip is worth 20hr 31min of pay had
has you away from home for 80hr 24min. If your flying takes less time per
leg, then you still get the guarantee of 20hr 31min and you still get the min
pay; however, if your whole trip was 21hr 15min you will be paid extra for the
difference. So that is what a pairing will look like. Some have five
or six legs per day and some have one or two or no legs. Each pilot likes
something different, and bidding allows you to find something that better suites
your needs. It doesn't always get you exactly what you want, but with the
ability to trade trips with other pilots or pick up extra trips, the airlines
have made the process a bit more user friendly.
Hopefully, this has helped answer some questions about how airline pilots pick
their schedules and what a schedule really looks like. This was just a
general overview of what really goes on. Each airline has its own rules
and contracts with the pilot groups to govern how schedules are made, what can
be assigned, or how many days off are guaranteed. The average
regional/national pilot has about 10-12 days off guaranteed and the average
reserve guarantee for pay is 75 hours per month. If you want to get into
this industy, the best advice is to do your research. Find out what
airlines you want to apply to, where their pilot domiciles are located, what is
the pay and the work rules, and what the average schedule looks like. This
is a very rewarding career, but it's not for everyone. Make sure it's what
you want. If you decide you want to be an airline pilot, you will have one
of the greatest jobs out there.
Curious about what life is really like at a legacy airline?
What is Reserve duty like at a major airline?
The letter R represents a block of reserve days while the RD, which actually is
RDO, represents reserve day off. This reserve line allows you to see what
a schedule looks like for a reserve pilot at a legacy airline. This pilot
will have a total of 11 days off for the month. Located on the right side
of this schedule is a box with the line stats. DO=11 means 11 days off;
CR=00 means the the credit hours the trips are worth. Since there are no
initial trips on this reserve line, the value for the month will be the
airlines' contractual minimum monthly guarantee. The remaining codes do
not apply to this reserve line because there are not trips scheduled.
Click to enlarge
What does an (A320) line look like at a major airline?
This line is a sample of what a mid-seniority line at a major airline would look
like. The equipment in this case is an A320 based at DCA. The stats
for this line can be found in the box on the right hand side just like the
example for the regional lines. A quick glance reveals that this pilot
will fly a line scheduled with 12 days off, 93hr 23min of pay credit, and 90hr
16min of flight time. The total time away from base (TA) as scheduled for
the month will total 355hr 22min.
What does a typical (A320) trip look like?
Here is a four-day pairing pulled from the last trip of the month. Pairing
0586 shows four days of duty with a departure time of 09:40 on day one.
The first overnight is LAX with 16hr 53min of rest scheduled. Day two
begins with a 08:40 departure to LAS with 01hr 06min on the ground before
departing for DEN. Day two is scheduled to end at 19:51 local time in DEN
with a 22hr 49min overnight. The next day's departure is scheduled for
18:40 with a single flight leg to YYZ for ORD at 17:30 with a 45 min turn around
time on the ground to complete the final leg back to DCA with a scheduled
arrival time of 21:59. This total trip has 21hr 35min of pay, over 32hr of
duty time, and 85hr 34min of time away from base.
A Day in the Life of an Airline Pilot
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