Members of the European Parliament’s transport committee voted today (30 September) to reject a European Commission proposal to tighten and standardise flight time limits for pilots across the European Union.     

The European Commission proposal was made under the EU’s ‘scrutiny’ procedure, giving the Parliament and member states three months to either accept or reject it. The motion to reject the proposal in committee passed 20-13. The issue will now be put before the full European Parliament, most likely during the second October plenary session during the week of 21 October. The Parliament has until 25 October to reject the proposal.  

If the transport committee had failed to reject the proposal today, it would have become law.  

Pilots unions, including the European Cockpit Association (ECA), an umbrella organisation of national pilots unions, have been raising alarm with MEPs ahead of the vote. They say that rather than protecting pilots, the new rules will actually increase the amount of time pilots have to fly in some member states.   

“The proposed rules contain a large number of provisions that are counter to what scientific experts consider safe,” said Philip von Schöppenthau, ECA Secretary General. He says the proposal would mean pilots could be working for up to 22 hours straight.

The European Commission says the unions are distorting the proposal to make flight times seem longer than they are, in order to push for even lower limits. No member state would see flying time limits increase under this proposal, they insist. On the contrary, the proposal would lower flight time limits in every member state.   

Siim Kallas, European commissioner for transport, said the committee vote “puts at risk key measures to improve aviation safety.” “We need a debate based on facts, not based on misleading scare stories and false claims,” he added.

Existing EU standards on flight time limits were agreed eight years ago but were temporary and did not cover large areas such as resting time and jet lag adjustment. The new proposal would make the standards permanent and increase harmonisation in the areas previously not covered.

The ECA is arriving at the 22-hour figure by adding the proposal’s 14-hour daytime flight limit to its 8-hour standby limit. Currently standby time is not limited by the EU and it varies widely between member states. This combined ‘flying plus standby’ time is currently up to 26 hours in some member states.   

The union is arriving at its 22-hour figure by including ‘at home standby’ time. But the Commission argues this can’t be considered as a continuous shift, since pilots can be sleeping while on standby at home. The new proposal says a combined at-airport standby and flight time cannot be more than 16 hours together.

The union also says that the proposal’s limit of 11 hours (down from the current 11 hours 45 minutes) for night time flying is above what “scientific experts consistently recommend,” a maximum of ten hours. But the Commission says only one study conducted in 1998 pertained to a specific long-distance flight. The general scientific consensus is 11 hours, they say. The UK is the only country to have a night time limit less than 11 hours 45 minutes, setting the limit instead at 11 hours 15 minutes.   

The Association of European Airlines (AEA) is calling on the Parliament’s transport committee to back the Commission’s proposal. “The lack of harmonised FTL rules would mean that the current fragmented legislative framework would continue to apply,” said Athar Husain Khan, secretary general of the AEA. “The new FTL rules would ensure that Europe will continue to have one of the strictest rules in the world, even stricter than today.”     

With the exception of Austria and the Netherlands, all member states were in support of the proposal when it came out in July. But that may have changed in recent weeks with increased pressure from the unions. Earlier this month, the British parliament’s transport committee advised the UK government to reject the proposal.