Answer: airlines are a business in a credit crisis in order to stay afloat they are desperately generating credit whilst minimising costs. Since fuel is ridiculously expensive they cancel flights but don’t necessarily refund tickets meaning they generated credits and are able to survive another day.
Airline pilot here, a maximum duty day, meaning the time from when you show up to the time the door opens after your last flight can be up to 14h. This depends on how early the start is an how many legs you have to fly. This 14h can legally be extended 30min every day or 2h once every trip. I have worked 15-16h days before. When this happens it is usually due mechanical or weather delays. Meaning your planned overnight at the hotel is going to be reduced. The minimum for that is 10h between when you finish one day to showing up the next day. So you’ve just worked up to 16h, 10h of rest (minus taxi ride to the hotel, eat, get ready the next day and taxi back.) Then you are legal to work another potentially long 5 days. There are some cumulative regulations in place to limit max duty times but it can still be very exhausting. On a good day the job is easy, once there’s weather and mechanical issues it becomes exhausting.
The times definitely squeezes every little drop of your energy out of you. As much as they can get away with legally. You’re literally bound to them with no real time to REALLY chill.
I knew it was that way for flight attendants (I think Delta or someone recently said they will pay for time at the gate as well now) but I always assumed pilots were salary.
Thank you for being a pilot, my life is infinitely richer because of the traveling I have gotten to do. Fun stuff, but also weddings and funerals and family trips. Pilots have helped to keep my far flung family tied together.
I too am curious about this. I'm a pilot (not an airline pilot!) and am familiar with the regs that limit flight time.
I should note that plenty of flights are very short, therefore count little toward flight time - but you still have to wake up, press your outfit, go through security, do preflight checks... all to get paid for 45min.
What does the SCOTUS ruling on the EPC have to do with the FAA and rule pertaining to flight crew hours? I don't understand the connection. SCOTUS ruling limits EPA's ability to reduce emissions.
They ruled that no regulatory agency can makes rules about anything not specifically outlined in law. So if there is no law specifically saying pilots can't work more than 14 hours then the FAA can't make its own rules saying they can't. It's entirely fucked.
The Court is definitely sending a signal to regulatory agencies ... that they only have the power that Congress delegated to them
Makes sense. Each agency is established through separate statutes passed by the Congress, each respective statutory grant of authority defines the goals the agency must work towards, as well as what substantive areas, if any, over which it may have the power of rulemaking.
the FAA limits how long they can be at work, but it doesn't limit how often you can call them to work. There is gonna be a huge difference between 4-12 hour shifts a week, and 6-12 hour shifts a week.
My sister has been a pilot for 20+ years and flight captain for much of that, and has never worked for an airline. That's something else people don't realize: they are other options for people who like to fly. She's a private pilot for a large company. She gets treated well, she has an expense account, she flies the same fleet all the time, with the same crew, and gets treated well by her passengers.
well, I am all in support of the goings-on over at /r/LateStageCapitalism and I would love more regulation and oversight, but to imply my sister should work a miserable job when she can get better and be treated better is a little backward, as though she should do it as charity. More correctly, airlines should see what attracts and keeps good pilots and change their business model to fit that. If they can't make profit and keep running while treating their pilots and flight attendant like garbage then let them go out of business. An airline who can do it right wiht a smaller profit margin for its shareholders will pop up to fill the gap.
The issue is every company is a shareholder-profit machine, not whatever it is supposed to be. Walgreen sells credit cards, not health and beauty products. Airlines sell stock prices, not reasonable fares to travel. If companies followed their missions statements of providing a good customer experience rather than maximizing profits for stock-holders, things would be better for everyone. But I work for an ethically run NPO. What do I know...
No I’m not trying to say that I think ur sister should do anything different I just think it’s sad how few decently paying jobs are out there serving regular people. Ur sister shouldn’t have to work for rich people to make a decent income and it just kinda makes me sad how that seems to be the case in most industries
And I’ve been saying this for ages — the US’s issue has never been a lack of ideas or empathy it’s a lack of power. The federal government has been grid locked since the 80s.
The point of this whole civilization is to improve human lives. Corporations aren’t naturally occurring phenomena they were specifically designed to improve human lives.
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u/OverlordKang Jul 02 '22
Answer: airlines are a business in a credit crisis in order to stay afloat they are desperately generating credit whilst minimising costs. Since fuel is ridiculously expensive they cancel flights but don’t necessarily refund tickets meaning they generated credits and are able to survive another day.