Canadian pilots to have shorter flying hours as Ottawa tries to curb crew fatigue

The federal government is enacting strict new measures to address mounting concerns about tired flight crews on commercial planes.

New regulations will set lower limits for the number of hours a pilot can be in the air and on duty before having to take a break.

The government plans to allow carriers that have a harder time meeting those hours to create fatigue-management systems to mitigate risks.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau said those systems will give speciality airlines, such as those in the North, a bit of flexibility.

The rules would lower the number of flight hours to 1,000 from 1,200 over 365 days and set a maximum workday anywhere from nine to 13 hours, depending on start time, Transport Canada said in a statement. A commercial airline pilot’s flight duty period was previously capped at 13 hours and 45 minutes.

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New rules are also being introduced to prohibit alcohol consumption for flight crew members 12 hours before duty, an increase from eight hours.

— With a file from Reuters