Layover
The rest period spent away from base between two duties, in a crew hotel, from a legal minimum overnight up to several days.
Definition
A layover (a slip or night-stop in British usage, downroute in crew slang) is the time between the end of one duty and the start of the next when it is spent away from base. It must contain at least the legal minimum rest — 10 hours away from base under EASA — but is typically scheduled around the return flight, so real layovers range from a 10–14-hour domestic overnight to 72 hours or more on ultra-long-haul. The airline provides the hotel and transport and pays an allowance for the time away.
What it means for you
Layovers are the reason many people take the job and the reason others burn out: they carry the allowances that lift long-haul pay, but every one is a night out of your own bed and a time-zone shift for your body clock. Long layovers in good cities go to seniority at bidding airlines; at company-rostered Gulf carriers they are spread across everyone.
In practice
Emirates crew see everything from 24-hour US and European layovers to 48–72 hours in Australia, Brazil and Japan; junior Delta crew mostly see 10-hour domestic overnights until seniority unlocks the international flying.
Go deeper
Related terms
4 terms- Rest periodRoster & schedulingThe uninterrupted time free of all duties that must separate two duties: 12 hours at base and 10 away under EASA, 10 hours under the FAA.
- Layover allowancePay & benefitsThe fixed sum paid for each night or layover spent away from base, usually in the destination's currency and often tax-free.
- Crew hotelCrew lifeThe airline-contracted hotel where crew sleep on a layover, chosen for transport time and rest quality and paid by the airline.
- Layover cityCrew lifeA city where a crew is rostered to rest between sectors — the reward of long-haul flying and the reason many people apply at all.