Southwest Airlines and Delta Airlines pilots in the United States say pilot exhaustion is increasing and they are pushing for airlines to treat fatigue and the resulting errors as a safety risk.
“Fatigue, both acute and cumulative, has become Southwest Airlines’ primary safety threat,” the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) told airline executives in a letter this week.
Causes, pilots say, include cancellation chaos caused by bad weather and rising demand for air travel testing the mettle of airlines still recovering.
Passenger numbers are about 90% of 2019 levels this month, according to Department of Transportation Security data, but major U.S. passenger airlines are about 3,000 fewer employees over that period, according to data. from the Department of Transport Statistics.
Thousands of pilots have retired — either by choice or by aging at age 65 — during the pandemic, and research presented by the Regional Airline Association says a further 2,000 pilots reach the mandatory retirement age this year. Mandatory retirement numbers are expected to grow over the next six years.
Southwest executives identified hiring as one of their top priorities this year, setting a goal of hiring 8,000 new employees. Forty percent of them will be flight crews.
More signings alone will not solve fatigue problems, says SWAPA President Casey Murray.
“A lot of our delays and issues that we’re having have more to do with scheduling and connecting pilots with planes,” Murray told CNN in interview. “These are inefficient scheduling processes that are taking a toll when we work in a very dynamic environment.”
The union wrote in the letter to executives that the number of pilots reporting not being able to work because of fatigue soared last fall, including a 600% increase in October, and hit “another staggering 330% increase.” last month.
“April is already setting fatigue records,” SWAPA wrote.
Federal rules set basic limits on the hours pilots can work and require rest periods. Limits for major US airlines include 30 hours of flight time per week and a minimum of 9 hours of rest between shifts.
But pilots report the stress of work and changes due to storms can wear them out before reaching those benchmarks. Southwest Airlines acknowledged an increase in fatigue reports filed last month – 35 reports for every 10,000 periods of service, compared to 10 reports for the same metric in March 2019. Spokeswoman Brandy King said the numbers show a effective system.
“The increase is to be expected as it is common to experience a high level of fatigue calls during irregular operations, and in March, the industry faced weather and airspace delays that resulted in network-wide outages,” King wrote in a statement to the company. CNN.
“The March increase in pilot fatigue calls is a result of the system working as designed, allowing the crew to determine if they are too tired to fly.”
Delta Airlines pilots are holding a series of demonstrations at airports this month, drawing attention to their fatigue concerns.
“Our pilots are tired and fatigued,” Evan Baach, a Delta captain and an officer of the Air Line Pilots Association, or ALPA, told the Airline affiliate. CNN KSL at a protest at the Salt Lake City airport. He said pilots are working “longer days with shorter nights at home”.
Jason Ambrosi, Delta Group President at ALPA, said pilots are responsible as “the last line of defense” in aviation safety, but “we are often being pushed to our limits as Delta tries to add flights and capture revenue”.
ALPA wrote in a message to Delta members last month that the pandemic presented “multiple opportunities for Delta to redefine its insufficient pilot staffing problem.”
As air travel now recovers, the union wrote, unresolved issues are becoming more apparent: the number of pilots available to intervene and cover an issue caused by weather, maintenance or a sick colleague is significantly lower.
“Delta Flight Operations continues to run the red line operation,” the union’s statement reads. “So if it seems like you’re working harder and having less control over your schedule – you’re right; you are.”
Delta told the CNN that your schedule follows federal rules for pilot work and rest hours.
“We continually evaluate our personnel models and plan ahead so we can quickly recover when unforeseen circumstances arise, and the resilience of the people of Delta is unmatched in this regard,” said spokesperson Morgan Durrant. “All of our people, including our pilots, are working hard to restore our airline and deliver to our customers as we emerge from the pandemic. We are grateful and proud of their efforts.”
Last year, pilots from all carriers submitted nearly 60 reports of errors or other incidents involving fatigue to the Federal Aviation Safety Reporting System. The reports are posted on a federal website anonymously, without identifying names or airlines.
Some pilots wrote that they were tired after dealing with training responsibilities. Others said airline managers asked them to handle many extra flights because of staff shortages.
“We were both yawning and rubbing our eyes midway through our 6+ hour flight… I was physically unable to keep up,” one captain wrote in November, despite having “slept proper and average the night before.”
“But ‘we’ go on – don’t we?” the pilot continued. “Our threats are three from the pre-Covid environment. We have faced delays, shortages, planning and staffing issues that are NOT being taken into account when building schedules. Why? Because we pilots count to make it work.”
Source: CNN Brasil
I am Sophia william, author of World Stock Market. I have a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and I have worked as a reporter for several news websites. I have a passion for writing and informing people about the latest news and events happening in the world. I strive to be accurate and unbiased in my reporting, and I hope to provide readers with valuable information that they can use to make informed decisions.
