Originally Posted by
strichener
Can I ask, how much of your job is flying against non-flying? i.e. If you are contracted for 900 hours, how many hours do you actually work?
Typically a long haul pilot will be at work 1.5 hours before the flight and considered to be on duty for 30 minutes after the flight. Anything extra to that BA gets free, so if a flight is delayed by an hour then arrives a further hour late thats two free hours of labour BA are getting from each pilot.
A short haul pilot will report 70 minutes before duty and be off duty 30 minutes afterwards. I don't know any shorthaul pilots who are off duty at that planned time on a regular basis such is the nature of BAs short haul operation.
It's been a while since I've seen any official figures but I seem to recall that longhaul pilots did about 20% total more duty hours than flying hours and short haul around 60% more due to so much time wasted on aircraft changes, flight delays, etc etc. Anecdotally Easyjet pilots will spend a lot less time in uniform to achieve the same flying hours as a BA short haul pilot, or in other terms, for broadly the same pay BA short haul pilots will have to spend a lot more time at work than Easyjet pilots.