While the fractional providers said publicly that switching to the more stringent rules of Part 91 Subpart K on February 17 was a nonevent, a look behind the scenes at NetJets reveals a somewhat more chaotic transition. It appears that the duty-time and crew-rest limitations of the new rule threw a proverbial monkey wrench into operations.
Since mid-February, scores of NetJets pilots have been forced to sit idly at FBOs for their entire 14-hour duty day, even if there isn’t a company airplane available for them to fly. The unionized NetJets pilot workforce called the practice “punitive scheduling,” viewing it as retaliation for their rejection last fall of a tentative agreement that would have provided the company with more scheduling flexibility under the new 91K rules. NetJets management does not comment on negotiations and did not respond to AIN for this report.
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