Fatigue Management – Flight Crew
Fatigue Management – Flight Crew
In February this year, Indigo had to cancel many flights because of shortage of pilots. On a positive note this shows a sign of healthy growth for the airline. But unlike other disruptions such as bad weather etc, this one could have easily been foreseen and potentially avoided.
Airlines have to deal with a large scheduling jigsaw puzzle that involves flight scheduling, crew scheduling, managing their training calendars, aircraft maintenance planning etc.
When it comes to crew scheduling, one of the major factors that airlines need to take into account is fatigue management of flight crew and cabin crew members.
Aviation industry globally has acknowledged and acted upon the impact of fatigue on the level of alertness of flight crew members and cabin crew members and have put limits on the flight time, and also prescribed minimum rest periods required to be observed by such crew members.
The FAA has defined these limits under FAR 117 and FAR 121. DGCA, the Civil Aviation Authority in India has defined similar requirements in CAR Section 7 – Series J. Even though the actual limits may differ, all of them apply similar methodologies and conditions while calculating flight time, duty period and rest periods.
Airlines can avoid disruptions originated because of shortage of crew if they have better tools to predict availability of crew members in future.
Making these details available and easily accessible to crew members can also boost transparency, easier decision making and more control on work-life balance for the crew members.
As part of Ascension products portfolio, RosschTech has developed tools that makes Fatigue management easier for the airlines.