Crew rest
Scheduled sleep on board during an augmented long-haul flight, taken in a bunk or reserved seat so the duty can legally run longer.
Definition
Crew rest is in-flight rest taken in a designated facility on flights long enough to carry extra crew. Regulators grade the facility: under EASA's ORO.FTL a Class 1 facility is a bunk in a separate compartment, Class 2 a reclining seat screened from passengers, Class 3 a seat reclining at least 40 degrees, and the better the facility the further the flight duty period may be extended. Rest is rostered in shifts so that the cabin is always covered.
What it means for you
Rest is what makes a 16-hour duty legal, and it is written into the flight rather than left to goodwill: the purser publishes the rest rotation at the briefing, and your slot is usually decided by position or by seniority. Learning to fall asleep in a bunk in a hurry is a real skill, and the crew who master it are the ones who arrive functional. On long sectors without a rest facility, there is no rest at all.
In practice
On a Qantas Perth–London or an Emirates Dubai–Auckland sector, crew rest runs in two or three blocks in the aircraft's bunk compartment; the flight could not operate as a single duty without it.
Go deeper
Related terms
4 terms- Crew bunkAircraft & cabinThe curtained sleeping berth in a hidden compartment on long-haul aircraft where cabin crew take their in-flight rest.
- Ultra-long-haulFlight operationsThe longest scheduled flights, beyond roughly 14-16 hours, flown with augmented crew and mandatory bunk rest.
- Flight duty periodRoster & schedulingThe regulated window from report for a flying duty to engines off after the last sector; the core limit protecting crew from fatigue.
- FTLRegulationFlight time limitations — a regulator's legal caps on duty, flight hours and minimum rest: the only hard limit on what a roster can ask.