Pilots at UPS are taking legal action against their exclusion from new rules over rest times whilecolleagues at FedEx are also protesting over the US Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to
allow air cargo carriers to opt-in or out of duty-time limits.The association representing UPS pilots has filed a petition in the US Court of Appeals,challenging the FAA’s exclusion of cargo operations from its final flight and duty time rules,which were published this week.
William Trent, general counsel for the Independent Pilots Association (IPA), said: “The IPAseeks to have cargo operations included within the scope of the rule because of the safety benefitsprovided by the rule. IPA does not seek to delay implementation of these important safety benefitsto passenger operations.”
He said that the association, representing the 2,700 pilots flying for UPS, would challengethe rule on multiple substantive and procedural grounds. “The internal inconsistency of the finalrule is remarkable,” he said. “For example, the FAA states that current regulations do notadequately address the risk of fatigue, and that the maintenance of the status quo presents an ‘unacceptably high aviation accident risk’. Yet two of the very factors that the FAA cites asexacerbating the risk of pilot fatigue – operating at night and crossing multiple time zones – aremore present in cargo operations than in passenger operations.”
Trent said the FAA’s only basis for excluding cargo rested on a cost-benefit analysis. “Yet,the agency does not articulate how it arrived at either the projected costs or benefits of applyingthe final rule to cargo operators,” he added. “The rule is wholly and utterly opaque when it comesto providing any factual support for the cost benefit conclusions reached.”
He said there were also procedural irregularities. “Cargo operators were allowed tosupplement the record after the public NPRM comment period was officially closed,” Trent added.“Accepted into the closed record was unsupported costing data provided by carriers. This data hasnot been subject to public scrutiny or review.”
In January, IPA will file additional court papers including a preliminary statement of issuesit expects to raise in the case.
Meanwhile, representatives of FedEx pilots yesterday also heavily criticised the new rules,describing them as “outrageous” and “a political failure”.
The FedEx Master Executive Council (MEC), the FedEx branch of the Air Line PilotsAssociation, International (ALPA), said: “The release of the Federal Aviation Administration’slong-awaited science-based fatigue rule for flight and duty time was a political failure. The rulecompletely ignores the safety of cargo pilots and instead lets operators choose to ignore thesafety improvements that will benefit pilots carrying passengers.”
FedEx MEC chairman Scott Stratton said that fatigue affects all pilots, not just those ofpassenger aircraft. “Over the first century of powered flight, countless accidents trace pilotfatigue as a contributing factor,” he said. “It is outrageous that the new rule does not includecargo. Cargo aircraft operate into the same airspace, into the same crowded airports surrounded bymillions of homes and face the same challenges every other professional aviator encounters on a24-hour basis.”
