Airlines Sue FAA Over Proposed New "Rest" Rule
What quality of on-board rest should cockpit crews of ultra-long flights get? That’s the issue at the heart of a lawsuit just filed by seven airlines against the Federal Aviation Administration (www.faa.gov).
The FAA wants crews on aircraft that fly non-stop 14 hours or longer to have separate rest areas - the threshold used to be 16 hours. It also wants to put more pilots on those airplanes. In a suit filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the airlines maintain, “FAA has neither demonstrated how the rule will advance safety, considered the potential that the rule may actually diminish safety, nor justified the significant costs of the rule against any purported benefit.”
Among the airlines filing suit are American, Continental, United and US Airways. They contend the FAA is, in effect, changing the rules in mid-stream while denying them input via the formalized Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Process.
While not a party to the suit, the Air Transport Association ( www.airlines.org) doesn’t think there’s “conclusive scientific evidence” that the crew rest provisions in effect contribute to fatigue or hurt safety.
Underpinning the airlines’ opposition to FAA’s call for changes is money. The “significant cost” the carriers talk about in their suit entail retrofitting airliners with crew-bunking areas.
Most international flights are under 16 hours. It’s only on certain transpacific and Middle Eastern runs that the new rule would affect flying.
©Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler