By John Crawley
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration opened the door to a threatened court challenge on Tuesday by denying a request from major airlines to stop enforcing its rule on pilot fatigue.
In a letter from FAA attorneys to lawyers for the Air Transport Association, the agency defended its policy on safety grounds and said the "flying public would be harmed" if the government honored the industry request.
The association, the main lobbying group for the nation's major airlines, said it was reviewing the FAA letter and would likely seek a court-ordered stay.
The industry contends that the FAA interpretation of the rule, which seeks to limit the number of consecutive hours pilots work, is causing flight cancellations and delays among airlines trying to comply, and would over time cost the carriers millions of dollars.
Airlines have interpreted the fatigue rule limiting pilots to 16 hours a day to mean scheduled duty time -- that is hours that could be extended if operational problems arose.
But last November, the FAA said the rule applied to actual, not scheduled, flight hours. That meant duty time could not be extended past 16 hours a day if a flight was delayed by a problem known before takeoff, like a mechanical glitch or bad weather.
Although enforceable now, the FAA said in May it would give airlines that needed more time to comply six months to adjust their flight schedules. The agency has said it would "deal stringently" with violations.
The airlines want enforcement halted until a lawsuit it filed earlier this year with the appeals court challenging the FAA's interpretation of the rule is resolved.
The industry views the government's interpretation as a dramatic policy change that failed to follow proper rule-making procedures, while the agency maintains it has had the same stance all along.
PILOTS APPLAUD FAA
The Air Line Pilots Association and the Allied Pilots Association, the nation's two main commercial pilot unions, applauded the FAA stand and braced for a legal fight.
"We are prepared for confirmation of this in the court of appeals just as the FAA has confirmed it in the court of logic," said Rich Rubin, chairman of the flight time/duty time committee at APA. That union represents American Airlines pilots.
Rubin and Duane Woerth, president of ALPA, said the current standard that allows for an eight-hour rest period is inadequate.
"The traveling public should understand that in most cases this barely provides a pilot with five or six hours of actual sleep -- and that's abominable," Woerth said.
The current fatigue rule has been on the books since 1985, and the FAA has spent the past six years considering proposed changes.
A General Accounting Office report on FAA rulemaking to be examined at a congressional hearing on Wednesday criticizes the agency for acting too slowly on the pilot fatigue standard and other mandates.
The FAA, which hopes to have a new fatigue rule by the end of the year, has said reaching a consensus on the issue has been difficult and time consuming.
Duty time and fatigue concerns also are at the center of an FAA investigation of crew staffing at American.
FAA investigators are scheduled to meet on Wednesday in Dallas with the carrier and its pilots union.
Rubin has asked federal regulators to order a relief pilot be put on flights between Dallas and Honolulu and Maui, asserting that American was cutting corners by flying the route with a two-person crew.
Last month, American switched to a two-person crew on the daily Boeing 767 service, saying seasonal winds made it a shorter flight than eight hours, the limit for flying without a relief pilot.
American has said it was a normal seasonal adjustment in line with what other carriers have done.
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Since it's an independent violation to 'tamper' with the numbers, let's see what the Dallas FAA office does with this. I'm betting on nil.