European Parliament vote on 9 October 2013 on flight time limitations
20.11.2013
Question for written answer P-013171-13
to the Commission
Rule 117
Saïd El Khadraoui (S&D)
On 9 October 2013 Parliament rejected a motion for rejection of the draft Commission regulation on technical requirements and administrative procedures related to air operations, following a debate during which Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas made a statement to clarify specific outstanding issues.
Can the Commission confirm that the interpretation of the regulation and the actions it intends to undertake are consistent with the statement made by Vice-President Siim Kallas, which influenced the result of the vote of the Members of the European Parliament?
1. As regards Recital 5, Member States may apply and enforce on their operators provisions of a more protective nature than those in the regulation, providing that the Member State’s request has been processed in accordance with the required procedures and that an equivalent level of safety is met or exceeded. Can the Commission confirm that this understanding is correct?
2. Regarding ‘standby other than airport standby’: Can the Commission confirm that the combination of other standby, such as home standby, with flight duty will be controlled by limiting standby as a rule to 6 hours when followed by a flight duty? The EU rules have been developed in such a way that no crew member will be on a flight duty after being 18 hours awake. Can the Commission confirm that it will request EASA to adopt its certification specifications in such a way that no crew member will be on a flight duty after being more than 18 hours awake?
3. Regarding night flights, can the Commission confirm that it will request EASA to prescribe in its certification specifications that airlines will be required to apply appropriate fatigue risk management measures for flight duty periods longer than 10 hours at night?
4. Can the Commission confirm that stakeholders, including aircrew representatives, will remain involved in all future developments on the FTL file, as will the European Parliament? The draft regulation obliges EASA to launch a new monitoring and research programme on aircrew fatigue and performance. This will include collecting data from Member States and stakeholders with respect to the key issues identified together with stakeholders. The Commission and EASA will discuss the different steps with stakeholders at each and every suitable opportunity.
OJ C 228, 17/07/2014