EU ignores impact of staff fatigue on air passenger safety

October 4, 2012

The European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF), the European structure of the ITF, has expressed concern that the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) ignores the impact of staff fatigue on passenger safety in its Opinion on Flight Time Limitations (FTL) for cabin crew and pilots, which was issued on 1 October 2012.

The ETF, which represents more than 100,000 cabin crew and pilots, believes the rules contained in the EASA opinion were drafted with airlines’ commercial interests in mind and disregarded scientific and medical evidence on a number of key issues.

Elisabetta Chicca, ETF Cabin Crew Committee Chair, said: “Science clearly demonstrates that long flight and duty hours and insufficient rest and sleep for cabin crews and pilots will lead to a decline of alertness and performance. The proposed rules will force crew to be on duty for more than 20 hours without appropriate rest, even without a break. This is totally unacceptable and undermines passenger safety.”

The ETF states that EASA fails to respect a number of scientific recommendations. These include ensuring that night duty during a flight should never exceed 10 hours, providing  good rest conditions for crews at all times, and applying good stand-by rules with appropriate rest. It says that scientific evidence shows that the safety of passengers and crew is at risk when maximum flight times and minimum rest periods become a normal practice.

François Ballestero, ETF Political Secretary, commented: “We are determined to make EU decision-makers offer acceptable solutions to the problem of staff fatigue. They must understand that the safety of passengers has to remain a key priority in the civil aviation industry.”