The minimum rest period for flight attendants in the US has just increased.
There are a lot of work rules for airlines. Minimum rules are mandated by the FAA and individual airlines can choose to implement more generous policies as part of their contracts.
The FAA has finalized a rule that requires flight attendants to take at least 10 hours of rest between duty days. Flight attendants get more rest if the duty period is longer. Flight attendants used to have a minimum of nine hours of rest, but in some cases it could be as little as eight hours.
The 90 day period for airlines to implement the new rules into their crew scheduling is now in effect.
Sara Nelson is the President of the Association of Flight Attendants- CWA.
“President Biden delivered today. Five years ago after decades of action by AFA members, science to back up our alarm on Flight Attendant fatigue, and relentless efforts with lawmakers, we achieved an overwhelming bipartisan vote to equalize minimum rest with commercial airline pilots. The law could not have been more clear, but instead of taking definitive direction from Congress, the Trump administration put our rest on a regulatory road to kill it. President Biden promised to make this a top priority to correct this and today under the leadership of Secretary Buttigieg and Acting FAA Administrator Nolen the rule for 10 hours irreducible rest for Flight Attendants is final.”
“We have been successful in setting these rest standards in several contracts, but this raises the minimum standard for all Flight Attendants and airlines will have to meet that standard in 90 days. It’s about time! As aviation’s first responders and last line of defense, it is critical that we are well rested and ready to perform our duties. COVID has only exacerbated the safety gap with long duty days, short nights, and combative conditions on planes.”
Flight attendant rest periods are based on how long they have in their hotel. The time that flight attendants have to wind down, get something to eat, sleep, wake up, and get ready for work is included.
Most flight attendants that had a minimum overnight layover were not getting enough sleep, and were often doing so multiple nights in a row. The adjustment will improve the lives of some flight attendants.
People in other professions have to work a lot more hours than that according to some. I don't think it's a good idea to have a government mandate that flight attendants get a reasonable amount of sleep.
Most airlines weren't planning minimum layovers for flight attendants so this shouldn't cause massive staffing shortages Flight attendants are assured a certain amount of rest.
California's new crew rest rules will be problematic and costly to implement and this policy change is more reasonable to me. The rule change will lead to the closing of California crew bases.
Under most circumstances, the minimum overnight rest period for flight attendants has been increased to 10 hours. More consistency in the industry will be provided by the fact that some airlines already had more generous policies.
The previous nine hour minimum did not mean that flight attendants would get anywhere close to that much rest. Nine hours of eating, sleeping, and getting ready for work can make it hard to get a good night's sleep.
What do you think about the new rest rules for flight attendants?
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