Brussels, 01/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Air Safety Agency (EASA) is working to protect pilots' rest times, if it is not possible to considerably reduce flight times for pilots and crew. On Monday 1 October, the EASA published its opinion on the revision of limits on flight times. However, pilots and unions have expressed serious misgivings as to the new limits, still criticising the fact that fatigue accumulation jeopardises passenger safety.
The Commission will put the finishing touches to these proposals, ahead of their approval by the Council and European Parliament by mid-2013. If the latter does not reject them, the new provisions will enter into force in 2015.
Protecting rest. The EASA is proposing some 30 changes to the law on limiting flight times. Mainly, its opinion recommends a 45 minute reduction in night flying time, to 11 hours (between 5 PM and 5 AM), and guarantees protected rest times (at least eight hours). There would be a 25% increase in rest time per week, including compensation for very early take-offs or very late arrivals, for example, or an increase in rest time when moving to different slots. As regards on-call time prior to a flight, if this exceeds four hours at the airport or eight hours at home, flying time will be reduced. On-call time may not exceed 16 hours in any case.
The EU less strict than the USA? Nobody is surprised, however, that flight times have recently been reduced in the United States, but the EASA takes the view that this is a matter of a different and not necessarily comparable approach: “on the other side of the Atlantic, pilots and crew members will fly less at certain times of day, but the proposal of the EASA provides far more rest than the American rules”, explains Jean-Marc Cluzeau, the head of safety standards at the EASA. There is also a geographical explanation for this, as long-haul flights are considerably longer in Europe, whereas in the US, priority is given to many flights over average distances.
Commercial stakes. Has the EASA therefore prioritised the commercial stakes, responding to the expectations of the airlines, as the pilots expected? Mr Cluzeau denies this: “safety has a cost and an impact on airlines, but this is the price to pay to improve safety”. The European airlines (AEA) were however prompt in accepting the new proposals, “although a few minor improvements are needed to avoid an unjustified increase in costs in certain specific cases”, said Athar Husain Khan, acting secretary general of the AEA.
Dissatisfied pilots. The pilots, cabin crew and their unions are by no means delighted, describing the new proposals as compromising passenger safety, due to the risk of excessive fatigue on the part of the personnel. They hope that the amendments to be made by the Commission or the Member States will bear them out. The European Cockpit Association (ECA), for instance, is calling for night flights to be cut to 10 hours (instead of the 11 proposed). They fear that a combination of on-call hours and short call standing will allow a pilot to land an aircraft after having been awake for between 20 to 30 hours. They regret the fact that the EASA has decided to cut flight duration from the third take-off only, and not from the second take-off, whereas fatigue accumulates. Lastly, they regret the fact that the personnel can be considered to be in reserve for 23 consecutive days. So many imprecisions compared to scientifically proven fatigue situations leads the association to conclude that “by concentrating on marginal improvements over the current rules, the EASA is drawing attention away from the fact that its proposal will allow work schedules during which pilots will be flying in a dangerously tired condition”, explains Nico Voorbach, president of the ECA.
The new proposals were also rejected by the European Transport Workers Federation (ETF), which feels that the rules are “totally unacceptable” from the point of view of passenger safety. “The EASA is failing to recognise that science has proven that long flights, on-call hours and insufficient rest and sleep for pilots and their crew leads to a decline in performance and alertness”, says Elisabetta Chicca, president of the “cabin crew” committee of the ETF. She adds that “much has still to be done to prevent staff fatigue. The European decision-makers must wake up and offer acceptable solutions to this problem of fatigue”. (MD/transl.fl)