Holidays

Holidays pause activity requirements so pilots can take time off without losing their account. There are two types: individual pilot holidays and VA-wide airline holidays.

Enabling Holidays

In Orwell, go to Settings → Activity Settings. Enable Enable Holidays (only visible when activity requirements are enabled).

Configure:

Setting	Description
Holiday Allowance	Days per year each pilot can take. Changing this resets all pilot allowances.
Pilot Account Age Requirement	How many days old a pilot account must be before they can book holidays.

Pilot Holidays

Individual pilots can book their own holidays to pause their activity requirements.

How Pilots Book Holidays

Pilots go to Phoenix → My Profile → Settings → Holidays and click Book Holiday. They select start and end dates, limited by their remaining allowance.

The page shows:

• Remaining holiday allowance

• When allowance resets (anniversary of joining)

• Total annual allowance

• Booked holidays

During a Holiday

• Activity requirements are paused - no grace period, no removal

• Pilot cannot book flights

• Logging in ends the holiday early - unused days return to allowance

Staff Managing Pilot Holidays

Staff can view and create holidays on behalf of pilots:

Orwell → Pilots → Holidays shows all pilot holidays across the VA. You need the View Pilot List permission.

When creating a holiday for a pilot, you can choose whether it counts against their allowance. This is useful for compassionate leave or special circumstances.

Airline Holidays

Airline holidays are VA-wide periods where activity requirements are suspended for everyone - useful for Christmas, major events, or scheduled downtime.

Go to Orwell → Operations → Airline Holidays. You need the Manage Airline Holidays permission.

How Airline Holidays Work

• Pilots can still fly if they want - flights are not blocked

• No new pilots are put on activity grace during this period

• Pilots already on grace are still removed as scheduled - airline holidays do not save them

• Does not consume pilot holiday allowance

• Shown automatically to pilots - pilots see the airline holiday in their Activity Requirements Summary on their profile

Creating an Airline Holiday

Simply set a start and end date. The system tracks who created it for audit purposes.

Pilot vs Airline Holidays

Feature	Pilot Holidays	Airline Holidays
Scope	Individual pilot	Entire VA
Uses allowance	Yes (unless staff marks otherwise)	No
Can fly	No	Yes
Booked by	Pilot or staff	Staff only
Saves pilots on grace	Yes	No
Location	Orwell → Pilots → Holidays	Orwell → Operations → Airline Holidays

Holiday Allowance Reset

Each pilot's holiday allowance resets annually on the anniversary of when they joined the VA. If a pilot joined on March 15th, their allowance resets every March 15th.

Tips

• Set a reasonable grace period - Pilots returning from holiday may need time to file a PIREP before activity checks resume.

• Use airline holidays for major events - Christmas week, summer holidays, or VA-wide breaks.

• Account age requirement - Prevents new pilots from immediately going on holiday to avoid initial activity requirements.

• Staff-entered holidays - Use the 'counted' toggle for compassionate leave that shouldn't consume allowance.

• Overlapping holidays - If a pilot is on their own holiday when an airline holiday starts, they don't get their days back. The pilot holiday continues as booked.

• Announce airline holidays - While pilots see airline holidays in their Activity Summary, consider using an Alert or NOTAM for more visibility, especially for longer breaks.