Pilots protest at plans to increase their working hours

AIRLINE passengers will be put in danger under European Union plans to keep exhausted crew flying longer hours, pilots claim.

Pilots across Europe have declared toda a day of action against the plans to increase their working hours above existing safety limits.

Almost 1,000 Irish pilots are backing the campaign to stop the EU adopting new regulations due to be approved by the Council of Ministers in March.

Pilots with Italian airlines are staging a four-hour stoppage today which has forced the cancellation of Alitalia flights between Dublin, Rome and Milan.

Irish pilots are restricting their action to a public awareness campaign but say the reaction in Italy where the new limits are being introduced in advance of final EU approval is a taste of what is to come right across Europe if the regulations are not amended.

The new regulations aim to standardise pilots' working hours in EU member states and some of the smaller airlines will have to cut back on their pilots' schedules as a result.

But many of the main airlines, including Aer Lingus and all the British carriers, will be allowed to increase the hours their pilots work in any given shift beyond the limits accepted by the European Cockpit Association (ECA).

"We have been pushing for standardisation for years but they are adopting the lowest common standards rather than the highest and that is just not safe," said the ECA spokesman for Ireland, Captain Adrian Hinkson.

"This is coming at a time when airlines are in a difficult commercial environment and are under economic pressure to push working times to the limits. The EU regulations will give them permission to do that at the expense of safety considerations."