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PILOTS ACROSS THE EU will now have at least two days a week rest twice a month after new rules were adopted today.
The provision is part of a raft of new rules brought in by European legislators which they say is aimed at improving crew protection against fatigue but some unions and MEPs have raised doubt about their effectiveness.
The regulations are expected to come into force at the end of 2013 and will become fully applicable two years later.
Other regulations include:
The Irish Airline Pilots Association had lobbied strongly against the new rules saying that they could effectively increase the amount of time pilots would have to fly in some member states.
The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) have also been critical of the entire process saying that although the regulations improve on the standards of some EU member states, they do not match up to UK safety standards.
“This has been a botched process by the EU from start to finish”, Balpa said in a statement.
Passengers and pilots deserve flight safety rules based on rigorous science and evidence, not secret dodgy deal making in Strasbourg, which will mean that Britain no longer has the safest skies in Europe.
For example, Balpa say there will be no limit on the number of “early starts” which usually require pilots to be at the airport between 5am and 7am, they say the UK standard in this area is at most three “early starts” in a row.
Speaking to radioep.ie earlier today, Labour MEP for Dublin Emer Costello said that she too was disappointed by the vote saying that there was confusion across the chamber before voting:
There was an announcement this morning that there was an agreement with unions which is disputed by other unions. I think it may have been better to defer the vote until we received clarification. Unfortunately there was a vote to defer the vote, unfortunately that wasn’t approved either, we moved to the vote and MEPs have approved the commissions proposals.
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9 of the 12 Irish MEPs supported the position of the Irish Air Line Pilots Association.
Europe has disregarded the advice of its own scientific advisors, and missed out on an opportunity to produce scientifically based rules in favour of commercial interests.
It’s a sad day for aviation safety!
I thought pilots could only fly a maximum of 900 hours per year , why does the above say a reduction from 1300 hours to 1000 hours?
What was advice?
Does this not mean shorter working year for pilots? Good for FTE bad for contract?
Once again those unaccountable pen pushers delve into industries they know nothing about, this is bad for passengers and pilots alike. The winners are arsehole airline management who will award themselves bonuses and politicians creating busywork for themselves. All the scientifically based rest and ftl rules go in the bin.
Pilot can fly for 11 hours, truck driver can only drive a max of 10. Somethings not well thought out.
but in fairness no auto pilot on a truck and only one driver
At least if a truck has an emergency just pull over to the side of the road not the same for aircraft . And some air operations are single pilot.
And a doctor can work for 36 hours.
Commercial airlines have few single pilot. Do ialpa want hours flying even lower … is that why they object?
If you understood what commercial flying is, you would know that all commercial pilots operating with companies with an AOC are bound by JAR-FCL which is the same as airline pilots.
You are correct I don’t know the technical definition of commercial as I don’t work in the industry. But as a layman reading the article my take is that iapla want even further reductions and restrictions on flying time which would require more pilots to run a schedule. No doubt a pay cut isn’t part of their plans. Contract pilots likely to increase at progressive airlines. One layman’s view only.
Have the airline pilots been asked for their opinion on the rule changes and if not why not, judging by their negative reaction it seems not, but now the EU have once again gone ahead and changed the rules without consultation.
So the cost will just go up
What people have to remember regarding pilots hours is they are calculated from off blocks (plane pushed off stand) to on blocks plane arrives at the gate.
You then need to factor in taxi delays ATC flow restrictions,Turn around times of the aircraft and also the pre flight which normally is 1 hour prior to departure+post flight debriefing.
Worst case: try driving your family laden car up rough slippery track into your unlit garage at speed on a dark wet night after 11 hours on the road…
I hope the people that brought this in will be on board when the accident happens, pure madness
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