Pilot fatigue in Ryanair

[flugholm]

From yesterday's "primetime" on RTE1:
Pilot fatigue in Ryanair, industrial relations, actions and non-actions of IAA etc.

http://dynamic.rte.ie/av/230-2172554.smil

Interessante Sendung! Und mal wieder die MOL-Show...

[White Cap]

Ryanair

STATEMENT - RTE PRIME TIME

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RTE’s Prime Time will this evening (12th September) purport to examine the dangers of fatigue among pilots. In so doing, Prime Time claims to interview a number of Ryanair pilots about their “concerns”.

This programme follows two weeks of correspondence between Ryanair and RTE. In all that correspondence, Prime Time have failed to provide any evidence whatsoever of pilot fatigue either in the airline industry generally, or in Ryanair specifically. Moreover, we also understand that Prime Time has refused to allow the IAA (Irish Aviation Authority), the relevant legal authority and independent regulator of all Irish airlines, to participate in tonight’s live discussion.

In its letters to Ryanair, Prime Time:

Fails to provide any evidence of fatigue.

Confirms that their medical consultant admits to falsifying medical records.

Refuses repeated offers to have the rosters of interviewed pilots independently assessed, which would prove their claims wrong.

Makes a series of false claims, each of which have been rebutted.

Fails to recognise the three independent reports by world leading experts which confirm that Ryanair’s rosters go beyond best industry practice in avoiding pilot fatigue.
By failing to provide any evidence whatsoever of pilot fatigue, either in the industry generally or in Ryanair specifically, RTE’s Prime Time programme this evening is nothing but an unbalanced sham. Ryanair operates among the best pilot rosters of any scheduled airline in Europe, which guarantee the following fatigue eliminating features:

Rosters are produced monthly in advance, providing certainty and reliability.

Ryanair pilots, by law, cannot fly more than 900 hours per year (compared to 1,000 hours in the US), which works out at an average of 18 hours per week.

Ryanair’s rosters do not include night time flying, overnights away from Base, long sectors, flights to/from congested hub airports or six consecutive duty days.

All Ryanair’s Dublin pilots work a 5 on/2off, 5 on/3off roster which guarantees them a bank holiday weekend every second weekend.
Ryanair’s rosters have been independently verified by Dr Mark Rosekind, the world’s leading expert on fatigue and air safety, as well as the former Heads of Safety of the UK and German Civil Aviation Authorities Each of these independent experts confirmed that Ryanair’s rosters go well beyond best industry practice in eliminating the likely causes of fatigue.

Ryanair operates to the highest international safety standards. Our pilot rosters exceed best industry practice. Our pilots, by law, cannot fly more than an average of 18 hours per week throughout the year. All of these facts can be confirmed by the Irish Aviation Authority – the regulator of all Irish airlines – whose offer to participate in the studio debate this evening was rejected by Prime Time.

Since – unlike Prime Time – Ryanair has nothing to hide, we are publishing the entire exchange of letters between Ryanair and RTE Prime Time so that people can see for themselves that tonight’s Prime Time programme is a baseless unbalanced sham.