Regulations and Government
European Union’s common flight-time limits draw pilot ire
Last month the European Union (EU) Council of Transport Ministers and the European Parliament finally agreed on new common flight time limitations (FTL) fo

Last month the European Union (EU) Council of Transport Ministers and the European Parliament finally agreed on new common flight time limitations (FTL) for commercial operations. But the new standards have provoked an angry response from pilot unions for being unsafe and for allowing too much latitude for individual EU member states to continue imposing their own limits.

Overall, the new rules–which will form Subpart Q of the long-awaited EU-OPS version of the existing JAR-OPS 1 operating regulations–are not radically different from the FTL standards that most European national civil aviation authorities already enforce. However, detailed changes to the FTL framework will generally result in extended flight duty times and shorter rest periods, said opponents of the change.

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