Opportunities to fly manually are especially limited at commuter airlines, where pilots may fly with the autopilot off for about 80 seconds out of a typical two-hour flight, Coffman said.
The whole issue is a silly subterfuge. A two hour flight is 7200 seconds. At 80 seconds the industry already has automated 99% of the flight. The amount of design necessary to automate the last 1% is a baby step.
The airline manufactures don't give a **** about safety, pilots, or hand flying. What they care about is liability. Removing the pilot from the flight deck effectively removes the airline operator from the liability equation.
If you take a step back it's preposterous. There is this huge canopy of tens of thousands of commercial pilots, their training, the simulator manufactures...even an entire area of academic study (human factors management)...built upon the thin reed of 80 seconds of human activity. What a farce!
The airline manufacturers would kick the pilots to the curb in a heartbeat if they got some type of liability protection.