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For short haul flights, airlines fly with BASIC CREW. For long haul flights, the crew must be composed for another crew or "extra" crew members, less than a crew.

What's the designation of the crew, that comprises more than the minimum number required to operate the aeroplane? For example: 2 captains and 2 FOs; 1 relief pilot; 2 captains and 1 FO.

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  • $\begingroup$ What do you mean the "designation"? Are you asking what the parameters are that dictate the number of crew members? Are you asking about flight deck crew, or cabin crew? $\endgroup$
    – Ron Beyer
    Jan 25, 2016 at 16:31
  • $\begingroup$ I meant, according to the number of crew members, there is an specific designation for them, as I have written, BASIC CREW for the minimum required number of crew members. In long haul flights, crew members can leave their assigned post, and be replaced by another appropriately qualified flight crew member for the purpose of in-flight rest. Some flights have 2 crew on board, including pilots and cabin crew members, and in others, one or two extra crew, for the same purpose. The designation for these teams, as BASIC CREW for the single ones. $\endgroup$
    – eduardoguilherme
    Jan 25, 2016 at 16:36
  • $\begingroup$ The number of cockpit crew required is based upon length of flight. Cabin crew numbers are based upon number of passengers as minimum but there might be extra to meet quality standards they wish to meet for first and business class customers. The exact regulatory minimums will be based upon your jurisdiction, so please include in your question tags the regulatory body you want an answer for (e.g. faa, easa, etc). $\endgroup$
    – casey
    Jan 25, 2016 at 16:47
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    $\begingroup$ ICAO is not regulatory, they only do recommendations $\endgroup$
    – falstro
    Jan 25, 2016 at 16:53
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    $\begingroup$ FWIW, back in the 1990s it was referred to colloquially as a "heavy crew." $\endgroup$
    – Terry
    Jan 25, 2016 at 20:50

1 Answer 1

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A crew that consists of the basic required cockpit crew for the aircraft plus relief crew for long flights is called an "augmented flight crew." As far as I know, this designation is used by ICAO, the FAA, and the EASA (and likely others.)

This ICAO document defines augmented flight crew as:

Augmented flight crew. A flight crew that comprises more than the minimum number required to operate the aeroplane and in which each flight crew member can leave his or her assigned post and be replaced by another appropriately qualified flight crew member for the purpose of in-flight rest.

The FAA's Federal Aviation Regulations define it nearly identically in 14 CFR 117.3:

Augmented flightcrew means a flightcrew that has more than the minimum number of flightcrew members required by the airplane type certificate to operate the aircraft to allow a flightcrew member to be replaced by another qualified flightcrew member for in-flight rest.

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