Pilots to Get More Rest? Airlines Sink on Proposed Rules (LCC, JBLU, CAL)
Airline pilots would get nine hours of rest between shifts under proposed FAA rules, according a person familiar with the matter.
A Bloomberg report notes that "The changes, prompted by an airline crash last year near Buffalo, New York, would also require pilots to get at least 30 consecutive work-free hours each week, a 25 percent increase from today’s rules, according to the person, who requested anonymity before the proposal is announced."
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Aviation Administration chief Randy Babbitt are holding a 1 p.m. news conference in Washington today to make a "major aviation announcement."
Bill Voss, president of the nonprofit Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia, welcomed the proposed rules in an interview with Bloomberg.
"Babbitt has done a very good job at finding common ground. Both sides are likely to be happy with this."
Current rules are "really very bad" and don’t recognize "the difference between day and night," Voss said. The proposal recognizes time-zone changes and the cumulative effect of sleep, and "those two things change everything," he said.
Shares of several airline companies, including U.S. Airways (NYSE: LCC), JetBlue Airways (NASDAQ: JBLU), and Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) are all down more than 1.4% this afternoon.
