EASA study reveals high levels of crew fatigue

A new EASA study reveals that European pilots and cabin crew are experiencing unusually high levels of fatigue incompatible with an acceptable level of flight safety, despite recent European legislation that is supposed to counter this.

Night flights come out as particularly fatiguing. The study has now demonstrated that not only very long night flights (10 hours or more) but ALL NIGHT FLIGHTS, irrespective of their duration, lead to an excessive level of crew fatigue.
The second major source of fatigue are ‘disruptive schedules’. Handling consecutive blocks of such duties and the transition between them are routinely at the top of short-haul pilots’ concerns about fatigue and rosters. The study confirms that these duties severely disrupt the human body clock and its wake-sleep rhythm.

Didier Moraine, BeCA FTL expert, through the European Cockpit Association, will now be involved in the follow-up recommendations that EASA will have to draft to tackle the issues raised.

Read more: https://bit.ly/2uz2FGN

We are all one in the sky

Call for the safe integration of drones in the European airspace

On 8 April, 15 associations of airlines, aircrew, airports, air navigation service providers, controllers, general aviation –  including the European Cockpit Association, our European association – published a joint declaration calling the European regulatory authorities to develop an EU-wide regulatory safety framework that enables the safe, secure, efficient and fair integration of drones in the aviation system. They identify a number of measures to be taken in order to achieve this objective, including:

• the need to run an extensive public awareness campaign,
• mandatory training and certificate/license relevant to operations,
• airport protection from drone intrusions,
• incident reporting, increase in the effectiveness of enforcement, situational awareness of all manned aircraft,
• traffic management for drones – UTM/U-Space,
• further research into essential areas.

Read more: http://bit.ly/2IziCF8

EU-Qatar reach an Air Transport Agreement

After two and a half years of negotiations, the EU and Qatar have reached a Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement (CATA) providing increased access to each other’s markets. EU and Qatari airlines will enjoy 3rd and 4th freedom traffic rights for passenger flights and ‘limited’ 5th freedom rights for cargo operations. This market opening is in line with the EU’s quest for further liberalisation in aviation and its ambition to reach agreements with other 3rd countries. While such agreements provide a unique opportunity for the EU to include much needed clauses on fair competition and social protection they should also bring in fresh commercial opportunities for our airlines. This is where an EU-Qatar deal falls short.
Read more: https://bit.ly/2FJSpkd

EASA study confirms the pilot age limit must be 65!

On 25 February, EASA published a study that was aimed to assess whether there is a need to mitigate the risk resulting from the cases of sudden incapacitation for pilots aged over 60. The study confirms EASA’s age limit set at 65 for multi-pilot operations (cf. 4.2.3). This is very good news for us as it gives us a further argument in our pension file!
Read the full study here: http://bit.ly/2P1j9R7

Towards more regulation of atypical employment practices?

EU Commission finds critical flaws in airline employment practices

A long-awaited wake-up call to EU Member States and an Expert Group are the two essential elements of the EU Commission’s new plan to prevent social abuses in aviation. Published on 1st of March by the Commission, it outlines the ‘Social Agenda’ for air crew, with the aim of achieving ‘socially responsible air transport’ in Europe. Its primary targets are airlines and temporary agencies, some of which are using loopholes and lack of enforcement of EU and national social legislation.
Read more: https://bit.ly/2OA6Xqs

A step towards banning Pay-to-fly practices

Provisional agreement on transparent & Predictable working conditions

On 7 February, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement on the European Commission’s proposal for a new Directive to create more transparent and predictable working conditions, in particular for workers in non-standard forms of employment. According to ECA (https://bit.ly/2OCfMjB), this is a major opportunity to stop Pay-to-fly practices. This agreement now needs to be endorsed by the European Parliament and the Council.
Read more: https://bit.ly/2GvvFGj