Trade association, the Air Transport Association of America (ATA) called for significant revisions to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) proposal on Flightcrew Member Duty and Rest Requirements.
“The airlines continue to strongly support regulations that demonstrably improve safety performance,” says ATA president and CEO James C May. “That is why ATA in its role on the Aviation Rulemaking Committee was a strong supporter of a science-based approach to create a new Flightcrew Duty Time Rule. We are very concerned that significant aspects of the proposed rule are not science-based.”
In comments to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, May said that beyond the core measures, which he supports, the rule, if implemented as written, “would create onerous and duplicative regulations, which in major respects do not mitigate fatigue or increase safety. These regulations would, however, add significant operational and scheduling complexity that will adversely affect our crews and customers.
”We are very concerned that the proposed rule reflects a lack of understanding by FAA of how airlines operate,” said May. “Our concerns are validated by the fact that FAA’s economic analysis is off the mark by at least a factor of 15 in its impact assessment, making it imperative that this proposal be significantly revised.”
May called on FAA to “work with the airlines and other interested parties to fashion a rule that is truly based on scientific research and real operational factors.”