I asked a flight attendant how rest and shifts work aboard aircraft
I asked Alessandro, a flight attendant and friend, to tell me how rest and shifts on board work [...]
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I asked Alessandro, a flight attendant and friend, to tell me how rest and shifts work aboard aircraft, even in light of the success of thearticle published in recent days where I showed the different crew rests.
Limits set by law
In-flight rest planning stems from the need to operate long and very long haul routes while preserving the psychophysical health of the crew and with it the safety of the passengers. The legislator, EASA in the European case, places great emphasis on respecting the recovery period of pilots and flight attendants, as the negative effects on attention, memory, coordination and more generally performance when the body's natural sleep-wake rhythm is not respected are proven.
Thus, hourly service limits are strictly established, defined as duty time, and limits of actual flight hours, termed flight time, in which the crew is allowed to operate.
Duty time
Duty time is our working time, which is the time from the time you arrive at the crew briefing room, generally 60 to 90 minutes before the first flight, to the final crew debriefing, about 30 to 60 minutes after the last flight. Flight time, on the other hand, takes into account only flight minutes from the time the "heels" are taken off at the gate to the time the engines are turned off at the destination gate.
The shifts of the sailing crews are thus created by a complex computational system which takes into account several factors, such as daily, weekly, monthly, and annual duty limits, the number of consecutive hours of rest enjoyed, the number of time zones in which you will be working and those in which you have worked previous shifts, and Even during what time slots were worked, in that working during circadian lows, between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., that is, the hours during which our bodies are programmed to sleep, is certainly more stressful than working during circadian highs, between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., when our bodies are programmed to be warm, alert, vigilant and responsive.
From this complex system of calculation, shifts are established, which generally cannot, however, exceed 12/13h on duty: limits that can (at the discretion of the commander, after listening to all crew members) be extended by 2 or 3 hours as appropriate.
Long-haul flights, how it works
But how is it possible make very long-haul flights If the crew cannot work more than 13h and of these not all can be flying? Not to mention that 20-hour flights are coming soon. The answer is simple: it is necessary to increase the number of crew members and provide very secret and jealously guarded resting areas.
Thus, the regulations stipulate that the service and flight hours can be extended based on the number of additional components, which generally consists of one or two pilots and a sufficient number of flight attendants, and the quality of the environment designated for resting them, as well as the number of routes that will be flown.
It is then possible to reach 18h of service for a crew provided that at least two additional pilots are present, 1st class rest bunks are available, and only one route will be flown.
Specifically, the regulations distinguish between:
- Class 1 rest facility: berth separate from the passenger cabin; not necessarily private but suitable for sleeping flat or nearly flat.
- Class 2 rest facility: inside the passenger cabin, reasonably free from possible disturbance by passengers or crew, but separated only by a curtain or similar. In this case, the backrest must be reclining at an angle of at least 45° and have leg and foot support.
- Class 3 rest facility: inside the passenger cabin, but separated only by a curtain or similar. In this case, the backrest must be reclining at an angle of at least 40° and have leg and foot support; it cannot be adjacent to any seat occupied by passengers.
Each airline implements in their SOPs. "Standard Operating Procedures" in relation to how rest shifts are managed on board. Generally, the captain is always present during takeoff, approach and landing, while as for cabin crew rests, they are determined by the heads of the relevant cabins (business and economy), although generally there is agreement among crew members in the spirit of full cooperation.
The regulations state that for pilots rest should be at least 90 minutes or two hours for the pilot who will be in control during landing. For cabin crew, rest may last from 1 hour for shorter flights to 5 hours for longer trips and is generally divided into two rest shifts following meal services.
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