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