EK Long Haul Flights
 

Hi Everyone,

Just curious, for a long flight DXB-LAX (16hours), does EK have 2 sets of cockpit crew? Anyone know?
Nigel

No, they have one set of crew but the crew is augmented.

Well on the A380 to JFK which is between a 12.5 to 14 hour hour flight, they have 2 sets of cockpit crew - 2 captains and 2 senior first officers. Not able to understand why would they not have that on a 16 hour long haul flight?

No. They have a single set of crew, except that the crew is composed of 4 pilots rather than 2 pilots. All 4 crewmembers are on duty throughout the flight, including their designated rest periods.

Yes Crew A and Crew B. Crew A will take off and land while B will operate mid-way.

Now I am a bit confused. So is it 1 set of crew operating throughout the flight or 2 sets of crew with separate responsibilities. On the A380, I see one set of pilots coming out around 1 hour into the flight and going for their rest. I assume they aren't 'on duty' then.

But there is only a regular contagion of cabin crew. One purser, 2 SFS etc. Just that they take turns resting between the meal service, but all do the meal services (after take off, mid way, before landing) together.

The entire crew is "on duty" from sign-on prior to the flight until sign-off after the flight. Part of their duties include taking a designated mandatory rest period.

It is a single crew and not multiple crews. The test for this is that final authority remains with the designated PIC for the flight, even if he has delegated authority to the cruise captain while on his rest period. That means that the entire crew (both primary and relief crewmembers) are part of a single crew with a common duty period, but different duties within that period.

Despite B747-437B's technically and politically correct reply, to most of us around here the common sense answer is yes, they have two sets of cockpit crew.

Fwiw, the pilot on my DXB-JFK flight on Saturday, after introducing himself and his co-pilot, announced that "because it's an extra-long flight, we have an extra crew with us" and introduced them - pilot and co-pilot. That's a verbatim quote, I wrote it down.

I did not try to correct him. :)

That happens quite often actually... but I think it sounds better to the average pax, instead of trying to complicate things by saying 'we are crew A who will fly the aircraft for the first hour or so... then we will switch to crew B so we have our designated rest... blah blah blah'.

However it definitely wouldn't be correct if they are flying DXB-SEA and have 4 additional crew who are actually deadheading all the way to SEA... which commonly happens for picking up new airplanes and such from PAE. :D

I think you've struck a very good collective noun for flight crews: a contagion!
After you rarely see them alone; they are usually sweeping through airports in a group.