This report gives an overview of the work performed, results and recommendations, and critical assessment of the review of the effectiveness of the EU requirements concerning flight and duty time limitations and rest requirements.
A scientific study ranked duties by their impact on aircrew fatigue and focussed on the top-two ranked fatiguing duty types over 2 years.
This first phase of the research assessed the impact of ‘night duties longer than 10 hours’ and ‘disruptive schedules’ on the fatigue of aircrews. The research found an increased probability of high fatigue levels during nights and duty periods with late finishes, among both pilots and cabin crew. No significant increase of probability of high levels of fatigue at TOD was found for early start FDPs. A marginal increase was found for mixes of disruptive schedule FDPs.
The results of this phase highlight that prescriptive limits alone are not sufficient to prevent high fatigue during night flights. Further research is recommended alongside other actions to support air operators with their responsibility to tailor more effective fatigue risk management strategies for night duties.
