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The Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) issued the following statement regarding the implementation of new flight- and duty-time regulations for airline pilots in the United States that went into effect on Jan. 4, 2014, emphasizing the need to modernize pilot fatigue rules in Canada based on science.
“ALPA commends the new pilot flight- and duty-time rule that went into effect in the United States on Jan. 4. These new science-based regulations represent significant safety enhancements that will benefit the traveling public and the U.S. aviation industry as a whole.
“In Canada, however, pilots are still operating under grossly outdated flight- and duty-time regulations despite several attempts to modernize them, exposing the traveling public to potential safety risks. Updated regulations, combined with fatigue risk management systems, are essential to advancing the highest safety standards, and ALPA has long advocated for science-based fatigue rules that would apply to all pilots in Canada.
“In November 2012, Transport Canada’s Canadian Aviation Regulation Advisory Council (CARAC) Technical Committee unanimously recommended that the report by the CARAC Flight Crew Fatigue Management Working Group to update flight- and duty-time regulations and rest requirements be reviewed by the Civil Aviation Regulatory Committee. ALPA participated as a member of the working group and supports the recommendations overall, which would bring Canadian regulations in line with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s standards and recommended practices on fatigue management.
“More than a year later, ALPA is disappointed that the process for amending the regulations in Canada has completely stalled. Canada must follow the United States’ lead and approve new science-based flight- and duty-time regulations for Canadian flight crews. We urge Transport Canada to make the process for updating these regulations a top priority to meet the standard set by the new regulations in the United States.”
