New Rest Rules tomorrow, 12/21/11

[Guppiedriver]

This will be offset by transcon turns with the 9 hours of flight time allowance. Now senior guys will actually have more days off than they presently do. As far as the other 80% of us time will tell. Any way you look at it though I'll be glad to be rid of 16 hour duty days.

Anybody that allows themselves to be subjected to a 16 hour duty day, new FAR's or not, needs to have their certificate yanked.

 

[scoreboardII]

Agreed.

 

[OzBushWhacker]

Anybody that allows themselves to be subjected to a 16 hour duty day, new FAR's or not, needs to have their certificate yanked.

Er well I guess you've never worked part 135?

 

[labbats]

Anybody that allows themselves to be subjected to a 16 hour duty day, new FAR's or not, needs to have their certificate yanked.

I've got a certificate you can yank.

Try waiting on a rescue flight or working a heavy crew charter. Or starting reserve and getting a call later in the day. While I'm not one to cry fatigue for nothing, I have and will do it when it gets unsafe. 16 hours isn't always the edge of the envelope on safety, but it can get close enough for comfort.

 

[goahead]

Er well I guess you've never worked part 135?

Or a regional

 

[no1pilot2000]

The Feds say one thing and the airlines do the opposite.

Like the old song goes...."You say tomatoe and I'll say tomahto. Let's call the whole thing off"

 

[Lear70]

What 9 hours does for AirTran is allows just about everything from any domicile be run as a turn instead of the 24 hour overnights we get throughout the Caribbean and West Coast, which is what I primarily bid (I like playing on the company dime and still get 17-18 days off a month with about 75 hours of block, 80 hrs credit (about 105 TFP)).

I'm not excited. I didn't get into this gig to work 12 hour duty days, get 11 hours at the hotel, fly 9 hours a day over 4 or 5 legs, 22-24 hour 3-days to make it commutable, still with 18 days off a month but working my butt off around 90 hours of block per month.

uke:

 

[Mr. Johnson]

Rest to begin behind closed door didn't seem to make it in.

Sounds good on paper but there is no way to implement a rule like that. 10 hours is a step in the right direction though.

 

[NEDude]

Any insight as to what this means for staffing levels at airlines?

 

[Lear70]

They should stay the same or possibly even go down at the Majors.

With the ability to schedule more flight time inside the same duty footprint most of us already fly in, especially the west coast and near-international, with only very minor changes in reserve duty rules for the most part, and not requiring behind-the-door rest of 10 hours, but rather closer to 9 and change which is what most of us already get, it doesn't appear this will do a lot to increase staffing levels, especially in the near-term.

Why? Easy. The airlines have up to 2 years to adopt ALL of the regs, and they can pick and choose which portions they want to use until then, which means they can immediately start scheduling that 9 hours of block inside the duty footprint and rest requirement in the chart for the trips they want, and use the current regs for other trips that need them until the rule becomes final (or is amended).

We'll see in a few months. Airlines plan their block hours and staffing around the marketing schedule usually 2-3 months out. We'll see which airlines start tinkering with those rules first and what it does to staffing and reserve levels...

The Regionals, however, will have to staff better and will have to hire some. Anyone's guess on how many and when.