Brussels, 22/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 22 January, pilots and crew members organised a number of awareness action events in around 20 European airports to inform airline passengers about the ongoing review of flight and standby times (FTL rule). According to the pilots and their crews, this rule allows airlines to make their staff fly when they are suffering from fatigue. Commissioner for Transport Siim Kallas also received a petition containing 100,000 signatures from passengers who are concerned about their safety caused by airline personnel fatigue.
Led by the European Transport Federation (ETF) and the European Cockpit Association (ECA), this widespread mobilisation sought to put pressure on the Commission to take scientific recommendations on fatigue into account, which the European Aviation Safety Agency did not do when it made its initial proposal. According to this review, pilots and crew members could fly up to 12 hours in a row, although scientific reports believe that safety is threatened if night flights of more than 10 hours are exceeded. Nonetheless, the Commission has already suggested that it did not wish to re-open the debate on the question of scientific validity. The ECA believes that the latter prefers to buckle under pressure exerted by the commercial interests of the airlines. Leaders from the European, regional and freight airline associations (AEA, ERA and the IACA), however, stated that “on the basis of the EASA proposal, Europe will continue to have the strictest flight and standby rules in the world. The process of adopting final rules should not be 'derailed' due to misleading information.” (MD/transl.fl)