RFN wrote: ↑Tue Jul 23, 2019 7:30 am
DQ - Dual Qualified. This program is already over, but a large chunk of us flew the 737 during the winter season, and widebody Airbus during the Summer season. Just a matter of doing an extra sim at PPC renewal time.
CCQ - Cross Qualification. The shortened training required to swap from A330 to A321 and vice versa. 4 sims then a PPC.
MFF - Multi Fleet Flying. Fly an A330 to Paris, layover, and fly an A321 Neo-LR back to YUL. WIth a host of restrictions like takeoffs and landings in each type in a defined window etc etc.
I flew the A321 last winter after doing a CCQ, and came back to the A330 in March. It is my understanding, that until the MFF is approved,(if it ever is) and as long as my 330 or 321 PPCs don't expire, I can switch back and forth between the A330 and the A321 with just an extra sim session at each switch, so that qualifies as DQ (Dual Qualified A330 and A321). It just that at Air Transat, we took the habit of calling "DQ" an Airbus/737 switch, but a 330/321 switch is DQ as well, not just the way we have been using the term so far.
We have been flying what one of our Presidents called "An accordion fleet", meaning we have been grounding a certain number on un-needed wide bodies in the winter, and dry leasing a number of 737s and A321s from Europe in the winter. The extra crews from the grounded wide-bodies were transferred to the additional 737s and 321s during the winter, and came back to the wide bodies in the summer, at which point all the wide-bodies were put back in service and the extra narrow bodies sent back to their European operators.
This was a survival technique to adapt our fleet to the type of flying that was required according to the season, first started in light of the Sunwing business model.
Air Canada might change all that once they start calling the shots. They have their own needs and constraints......, some of which are dictated by the grounding of the 737 Max fleet in the short term.