No risk to European Aviation Safety

Flight and cabin crew unions are organising an EU-wide “Walkout for safety” to demonstrate against the proposed European rules for FTL and rest requirements. Pilot unions are claiming that European policy-makers will risk passengers’ safety by adopting the new regulation submitted by the European Aviation and Safety Agency (EASA) earlier this year.

Airlines however, will never compromise on safety. Flight Time Limitation (FTL) rules ensure utmost safety in the air and European airline associations have joined forces to emphasise this. Different FTL requirements that already exist across Europe are proposed that include some new and more restrictive requirements and limitations will be maintained.

The Heads of the three airline associations, AEA, ERA and IACA highlight: “Based on the EASA proposal, Europe will continue to have one of the strictest FTL rules in the world. National Safety Regulators, for example, the UK Civil Aviation Authority, have welcomed the EASA proposal which, to a large extent, is equivalent to the current well proven UK CAP 371 rules. The adoption process of the final rules should therefore not be derailed as a result of misleading information.”

With flight safety in the news again many business jet owners and operators are looking for flight planning systems that will build in these regulations. Systems such as those available from ARINC Direct will incorporate all the relevant calculations to make, file and amend flight plans.