NEWS | Wednesday, 26 September 2007

ALPA says delays resulting from pilot shortage

Following an press statement Air Malta on 16 September, ALPA Malta, the Airline Pilots Association reacted by saying: “It is very deceptive for Air Malta to state that ALPA Malta has ordered actions designed to inconvenience passengers and raise costs. ALPA has ordered no actions other than a dress down from full uniform.”
ALPA Malta felt that such an action was purely symbolic and purposely designed and consciously intended not to hurt or inconvenience passengers and not to raise costs for Air Malta. The additional costs mentioned by Air Malta and the passenger inconvenience caused by delays is due to the pilot shortage.
The attitude of the Airline towards its workers in general and their pilots in general has caused the ALPA to raise concern. According to the ALPA, “There has been a consistent and blatant abuse of the excessive flexibility pilots have given Air Malta over the years especially with regard to rest periods and duty time allocations.
“At a time when industrial relations are strained and pilot morale is at its lowest, it becomes increasingly important for pilots to be vigilant and observe the obligations agreed contractually and those required by law.
“Air Malta seems to have tried to pin the delay of a flight on the pilots requesting to have their full contractual rest period after a Malta-Catania flight the evening before. Even though the flight to Catania is short, the duty for the London Gatwick flight is a long 11hrs30mins and requires three Take Offs and three Landings.
“It is for this reason that the crew opted to be well rested before undertaking such a long flight. The reason of the delay is crew shortage; this is exuberated by the fact that flight duties are not planned properly.
ALPA continued; “The Captain involved offered to work a shorter flight immediately after landing in Catania. This was refused by Air Malta even though it would have meant that the London Gatwick flight in question would have departed on time.”
“By just looking at averages, we are quite on target but averages do not tell the whole story because Air Malta seems oblivious to the fact that Roster Guidelines are set out in the Collective Agreement, which are designed to prevent pilot fatigue.”
One such guideline states that a roster must be planned in such a manner to minimise the disruption of sleep patterns. Air Malta routinely rosters crew to fly a whole night flight to Moscow which consists of 11 hours and 45 minutes of duty followed by an early morning flight.
“This happens several times in our rosters. In some cases, a pilot is expected to work an additional third early morning flight as may be seen in an actual September roster of an Air Malta Captain depicted below. This creates havoc on a pilot trying to plan any safe amount of rest.”
In its statement APLA said the shortage in pilots was so severe that on several days no crew are placed on Standby. Standby crews are required in the eventuality that another pilot reports sick. The lack of Standby crew is one of the main reasons why several flights have been delayed and even cancelled.