JEPPESEN fatigue risk management study quantifies the effectivness of flight and duty time regulations

In the study, Jeppesen quantified the performance of seven flight time limitation regulatory approaches (FTLs) that were measured against300 of the largest airline fleets worldwide.The study highlights the inadequacy of using strict FTL rules to limit crew fatigue and instead proposes a shift in direction for the commercial aviation industry by focusing on interactive fatigue models that incorporate continuous data and feedback.

The results of the technical study can be found on the Jeppesen Fatigue Risk Management web site. In the study, more than 2,100 optimization simulations were conducted using Jeppesen Crew Pairing optimizer functionality.The results were analyzed in detail to calculate efficiency and safety differences between the FTLs that were studied.

This unique study of flight and duty time regulations allows us to quantify the effectiveness of the constraints under which airlines are operating, said Tim Huegel, director, Jeppesen Aviation Portfolio Management. We believe that an analytic and scientific model-based approach to the crew fatigue issue will be critical for increasing overall flight safety in the commercial aviation industry as we move forward.

Newly proposed Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) flight time limitation regulatory approaches from the U.S. and Notices of Proposed Amendment (NPA) approaches from Europe were included in the study, to provide a wide range of regulatory guidelines that are used currently and will be used in the future by airlines to address crew fatigue factors.