Should Cargo Carriers Be Exempt From The New Flight/Duty Changes?

After the Colgan Air Accident, the Aviation Industry has witnessed a change in regulations for flight crew members in order to increase safety. As we all may already know, the Air Transport Pilot Certification has gone up to 1,500 hours to where before, a total of 250 hours was only required. According to newly posted article about the FAA addressing pilot fatigue, it is stated that in the old rule, different hour requirements were based on whether the operation is domestic, international, or unscheduled to where now the new rule applies to all operations in the same way (Houston, 2017). The old rule requires the certificate holder to give reserve pilots at least 24 hours off in a 7-day period, to where now reserve pilots are to be given a rest period of at least 10 hours during their assignments at the airport (Houston, 2017). The new rule also requires flight crews to have a rest period of 10 hour, with the opportunity for at least 8 uninterrupted sleep hours (Houston, 2017). The old rule allowed the rest period of nine hours to reduced to 8. The maximum flight time during the day is now nine hours, and eight hours at nights, all depending on how many segments flown and the start time of duty. The FAA made the new flight/duty rule effective as of January 4th, 2014 and required all of part 121 certificates holder (as well as flights conducted under part 91) to comply. The new suggests that airlines put in place a Fatigue Risk Management Plan (FRMP), to educated pilots on their fatigue threshold.

The Federal Aviation Administration exempt cargo carriers from complying with part 117 of the new regulation of flight crew flight/duty rest requirements. To be more specific, all part 135 certificate holders (cargo carriers) are not subjected to comply. Although some cargo carriers, like Fedex and UPS, operate under part 121. According PNG logistics, the current flight and duty limitations for part 135 operations is the old requirements prior to enforcing the new rule allow a rest period of 9 hours (can be reduced to 8) and limits flight hours per day and month only (Rest Requirements for Air Cargo Pilots, 2013). However, the Cargo Carriers' flight crew flight and duty limitations vary, depending on the time of the day the flight takes place. After researching the topic, there seems to be a confusion over what part 135 operators are to comply with after making the new rule effective.

I personally somehow agree with excluding the cargo carriers from complying with the new rule put in place by the Federal Aviation Administration. I think the costs of such rule, subjected to be at least $297 million dollars, is greater than the benefits generated in the cargo portion of the industry. Cargo operations are usually on demand around the clock and imposing such rule would be detrimental, as it would limit their pilots to fewer hours flown and more rest requirements. Also, the cargo carriers have improved rest facilities for their crew members as their cargo is being loaded/unloaded. The exclusion seems fair enough as the value of life in cargo operations is different than that in passenger operations. The pilot and co-pilot of a flight conducted under part 135 usually do not travel as far destinations as passenger flights. We are already facing huge pilot shortage, so if the rule was to be applied to cargo pilots, such shortage would largely increase.

All in all, and as of right now, the exclusion seems like a fair game. If the FAA was to include cargo operators to comply, the cargo industry would suffer. I personally want to work for the airlines, which somehow would be affected if such situation takes place. We would see more cargo pilots switching to the airlines.

References

Houston, S. (2017, November 17). Learn About the FAA's Final Rule for Pilot Duty and Rest Requirements. Retrieved January 29, 2018, from https://www.thebalance.com/faa-final-rule-pilot-duty-and-rest-requirements-282927

Rest Requirements for Air Cargo Pilots. (2013, January 29). Retrieved January 30, 2018, from http://pnglc.com/rest-requirements-for-air-cargo-pilots/