The US Federal Aviation Authority will review its decision to exclude pilots at UPS, FedEx andother cargo airlines from a new rule on rest hours after discovering “errors” in its
calculations.In April, the Independent Pilots Association, representing UPS pilots, appealed against thecargo pilots’ exclusion from the new rules, claiming the FAA had exceeded its authority by relyingon an unauthorised and imprecise ‘cost-benefit’ formula that had not been published for comment byinterested parties.
Now the IPA said that the FAA has admitted that it “discovered errors” while preparing for courtproceedings and will take another look at whether cargo pilots should be excluded from new restrules published in December. Cargo airlines can voluntarily opt-in to the flight and duty time ruleif they wish.
The FAA filed a motion asking the US Court of Appeals for “an order holding this appeal inabeyance and remanding the record to the FAA to permit correction of newly discovered errors in theadministrative record supporting the regulation at issue in this case as it pertains to all-cargoflight operations.” The FAA said it “discovered errors in calculating the scope of costs associatedwith the implementation of the regulations (rest rules) for all cargo operations.”
As a result, the agency proposes to “reopen the record by issuing a supplemental regulatoryevaluation strictly limited to the application of the new regulations to all-cargo operations.” TheFAA action, subject to court approval, would occur on an “expedited” basis and be subject tocontinued court supervision.
“In the context of our lawsuit, the FAA is now willing to allow for an open and publicexamination of the costs and benefits of having one level of aviation safety,” said IPA PresidentRobert Travis. “The IPA welcomes this development.” But Travis warned: “Make no mistake, this isnot a final victory. However, getting the FAA to reconsider this critical safety issue under thebright light of full public scrutiny and accountability is an important first step.”
IPA General Counsel William Trent added: “This is the type of relief we asked the court toprovide in our brief filed in April. A flawed cost-benefit formula, issued at the last minute,without opportunity for public comment and examination, was at the core of our legal objections tothe FAA’s exclusion of cargo pilots from new science-based pilot rest rules.”
