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Mediterranean Resort & Hotel Real Estate Forum returns to Greece

April 24, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

Now in its fifth year, the Mediterranean Resort & Hotel Real Estate Forum (MR&H) will return to Greece for the second year in succession this October. The event, hosted by Questex, is dedicated to the investment, development and operation of resorts and hotels within the Mediterranean region. This niche, but highly specialized area, comprises various elements; hotel, residential, marinas, health clubs, children’s activities, retail, sports facilities, F&B, all of which need to be carefully woven together with seamless operation to create a successful resort.

The conference will be held at the Hilton Athens on the 29-31st October 2019. A fitting venue for Hilton’s celebration of 100 years in hospitality and the continuation of the premise that the group was founded on; “travel can make the world a better place”.

The dynamic growth of tourism in Greece continues to boost investment activity throughout the country and throughout the wider Mediterranean region. Speaking at MIPIM last month, Secretary General for Tourism Policy and Development George Tziallas said; “Half of all funding under Greece’s 2016 development law has been channeled into tourism ventures, while more than 400 investment plans have been submitted in the last three years to the tourism ministry for approval.”

This statement is supported by data recently released by Horwath HTL during the International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) which revealed Greece is a prime investment opportunity for international hotel chains as only 1.7% of total units currently operate under an international brand. Results from the joint investor sentiment survey from Tranio and IHIF showed Greece listed as one of the European countries that is most attractive for hotel real estate investment.

Stakeholders from leading operators including Thomas Cook, Club Med and Nobu attend the event alongside investors from KSL, Starwood Capital Group and Dolphin Capital all recognizing the value of coming together as a collective to debate, converse and discuss.

Registration for MR&H 2019 is now open and delegate tickets can be purchased at the best value Early Bird rate until the end of May.

Enterprise Greece have pledged their continued support for MR&H and Grigoris Stergioulis, Chairman & CEO at Enterprise Greece said in relation to the ongoing collaboration; “Building on the success of the event last year, the positive working relationship with Questex and the significant opportunities that exist for investors in the Greek hotel market, we’re thrilled to once again partner with MR&H and look forward to welcoming the event to Greece for the second year.”

Alexi Khajavi, Managing Director of EMEA Hospitality + Travel Group, Questex said; “The tourism and hospitality prosperity that Greece is enjoying is leading to significant activity from serious investors and developers. As a conference host, our role is to facilitate these meetings, connections and interactions in an environment that is educational and energizing. With the continued support from Enterprise Greece, Hilton providing the setting, and amongst very encouraging industry data, we’re confident that MR&H will prove to be an event not to be missed for those currently active or keen to do business within the Mediterranean resort and hotel space”.

Travel News | eTurboNews

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Russia to use Fan-IDs (again) as visas for 2020 UEFA Euro Cup visitors

April 23, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

Upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, have passed on Monday a bill allowing foreign tourists with Fan-IDs to travel to Russia without entry visas for matches of the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup.

Last week, the bill was passed in the third and final reading by lawmakers from the State Duma, the parliament’s lower house, and following today’s approval by the senators, it must be signed into law by the Russian president.

“Within the period, which begins 14 days prior to the first match of the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup in Saint Petersburg and ends on the day of the last match [in St. Petersburg], the entrance to Russia for foreign citizens and stateless persons, who come to Russia to watch 2020 UEFA Euro Cup matches, will not require issuance of visas based on identification documents,” according to the explanatory note.

Addressing a government’s session in mid-March, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that the country planned “to employ the same mechanism we used in the past regarding the issuance and operational rules of Fan-IDs.”

Russia came up for the 2018 FIFA World Cup with an innovation, which was the so-called Fan-ID and was required for all ticketholders. This innovation was successfully tested during the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia and earned high marks from the world’s governing football body of FIFA.

The Fan-ID played an important security role during the major football tournament in Russia as it granted admittance to the stadiums and also served as visa for foreign visitors to enter the country.

A Fan-ID holder was allowed to enter the country without having a Russian visa and stay for the duration of the global football tournament. Fan-IDs were obligatory, in addition to purchased tickets, in order to attend matches of the 2018 World Cup tournament in Russia.

2020 UEFA Euro Cup

The matches of the 2020 Euro Cup will be held at stadiums in 12 different cities across Europe, namely in London (England), Munich (Germany), Rome (Italy), Baku (Azerbaijan), Saint Petersburg (Russia), Bucharest (Romania), Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Dublin (Ireland), Bilbao (Spain), Budapest (Hungary), Glasgow (Scotland) and Copenhagen (Denmark).

Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg was granted the right to host three group stage matches and one of the quarterfinals of the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup.

The decision to hold the 2020 Euro Cup, which will be celebrating its 60th anniversary that year, in various European countries instead of in one or two hosting countries was made at the UEFA Executive Committee’s meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on December 6, 2012.

A total of 24 national football teams will be playing in the final tournament of the 2020 Euro Cup. All 55 UEFA national member teams, including 12 teams from the hosting countries, will have to play in the qualifying matches to vie for the berth in the final 24-team lineup of the quadrennial European football championship.

It is possible that some of the national teams from the hosting countries of the 2020 Euro Cup will not be playing on home soil in case they fail to clear the qualifying stage.

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Air Seychelles gets ready for delivery of their first Airbus A320NEO

April 22, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

Air Seychelles has over the past few months started to implement its training calendar in preparation for the delivery of the A320neo set for July 2019.

Last week, key staff members from the Technical Operations and Project Management including the Flight Operations team, as well as representatives from the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority, attended the A320neo general familiarization training held in-house at the Air Seychelles head office in Pointe Larue.

The training held over four days, delivered by Mr. Michael Mahn, an experienced engineer from Airbus, provided the participants a general overview of the airframe that is the whole mechanical structure of the new aircraft. Currently another batch of staff members from similar areas within the business are also taking part in the training which commenced on Monday, April 15, and lasted until Thursday, April 18, 2019.

During the month of February, the Airbus Hamburg Training Centre welcomed the first group of Air Seychelles aircraft engineers as part of its comprehensive A320neo training program. The agenda composed of both theory and on-the-job experience provided the technical operations team further knowledge on how to conduct maintenance on the A320neo besides having the chance to view the Airbus assembly line.

Held from Monday, February 18, until Wednesday, February 27, the sessions in Hamburg were attended by engineers Clyne De -Letourdis, David Saminaden, and Denys Assan.

In addition to that, as of Tuesday, February 5, until Thursday, February 7, Manager of Cabin Safety Standards, Magdalena Hubert, and Manager for Cabin Safety Training Programs, Dereck Charlette, also had the chance to participate in the Airbus A320neo safety training held at the Airbus Training Centre Europe in Toulouse.

The training will proceed over the next upcoming months as part of the entry into service program of the new Air Seychelles A320neo aircraft.

The Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority in the meantime is progressing the type approval of this new aircraft which had not been registered in the Seychelles before and, therefore, requires additional regulatory approvals and licensing measures.

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Tourism stakeholders presented with Destination 2023

April 17, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

Following the consultative process to review and update the Tourism Master Plan 2012-2020 in May 2018, it was seen necessary that a concrete action plan to guide the Tourism sector be developed. Last Friday, at the STC Conference Room, the Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine, Mr. Didier Dogley launched the validation workshop for Destination 2023, a tourism strategy which will guide the tourism sector for the next 5 years.

The aim of the validation workshop was to discuss, validate findings and present recommendations as well as provide clarifications, prior to finalising the strategy document. This strategy has been drafted following meetings conducted with more than 300 persons across both private and the public sector, including but not limited to, tour operators, hoteliers, restaurant owners, as well as boat and yacht charter operators during  a period of 1 and  a half year.

The workshop was also attended by the Principal Secretary for Tourism, Anne Lafortune, Principal Sectary for Finance, Damien Thesee, the Attorney General and representatives from both Public and private sector.

In his opening remarks, Minister Dogley said: “Destination 2023, is the strategic tool elaborated to galvanise our efforts towards a common national vision and strategic goals and provide us with clear and specific steps necessary to achieve our set objectives and targets. It is the blue print for our tourism industry for the next 5 years.”

The consultants commissioned for the Tourism Master Plan, Mrs. Daniella Larue of Valsen Consulting and Mr. Guy Morel presented the 8 priority areas that should be collectively achieved by 2023. This include Driving brand development, Investing in market penetration and development, Improving product diversification, Addressing Seychelles competitiveness as a Tourism Destination, Investing in local talent development and management, Increasing Investment in Sustainable Tourism Practices, Delivering key enabling factors and Increasing Capacity of Government Agencies to facilitate tourism.

The consultants were commended by the Trade and the Principal Secretary for Tourism in her closing remarks for presenting a clear guiding strategy that will act as a roadmap for the sector’s sustainable growth. Following its validation by the Trade, the Destination 2023 strategy will be submitted to the Government for final approval.Once approved, the Department of Tourism will develop detailed action plans with monitoring measures and ensure its implementation to meet the set goals and objectives of the strategy.

MEDIA CONTACT: STB News Bureau, Tel: +248 4 671 354 / +248 4 671 313, stbnews@seychelles.travel  www.seychelles.travel

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SriLankan Airlines’ new plan to be like Emirates

April 16, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

In a bid to turn the loss making airline into a profitable venture, SriLankan Airlines has come up with a five-year strategic plan. Part of the plan will see them emulating industry leader Emirates, with a new hub and spoke network model.

In a statement SriLankan Airlines said:

“SriLankan Airlines has formulated a new five-year Strategic Business Plan for the period 2019-24 with the objective of transforming itself into a financially viable organization airline group with high brand visibility and a global reputation for excellence,”

They went on to say that the national carrier had an ‘enormous contribution’ to make to the GDP of Sri Lanka, including import, export and tourism.

What is SriLankan Airlines planning?

Their latest five year strategic business plan includes major development of the Colombo hub to make it a key connecting point for a variety of markets. SriLankan are targeting passengers connecting through Africa, Asia and the Middle East, in a bid to grow as big as rival airline Emirates.

As a member of Oneworld, SriLankan are hoping to leverage their membership to develop their network for the future. In contrast to their current point to point model, they plan to work on more of a hub and spoke model to develop new opportunities.

The plan is to be presented to the Government of Sri Lanka for approval shortly.

New routes and fleet

Currently, SriLankan Airlines operate with a fleet of 27 Airbus aircraft. Specifically, these are 13 A320 family aircraft and 14 A330s. As part of the five year plan, the carrier intends to select new fleet inclusions which match the requirement of their developing route network. They have also said they want to reconfigure their existing fleet to offer an enhanced business class service.

Already, the airline has announced a fifth weekly service between Colombo and Tokyo from July onwards, using its Airbus A330-300s. If the plan is formalized by the government, we expect to see many more new route announcements over the coming weeks.

As well as routes and fleet, the plan specifies that it will:

  • Enhance the customer experience by improving customer-centricity throughout the airline
  • Adopt best practices to improve productivity
  • Grow online sales to reach a wider market in a more cost effective manner
  • Improve employee engagement
  • Implement a competitive cost structure through a greater cost consciousness throughout the company

The plan is being headed up by Group Chief Executive Officer Vipula Gunatilleka, who was appointed to the airline in mid-2018. Prior to joining SriLankan, Gunatilleka was a board member and CFO of TAAG Angola. There, he worked closely with Emirates while they were managing TAAG, so no doubt knows his hub and spoke business very well already.

A loss-making airline

The airline is undergoing a major shakeup with a view to turning a profit. Over the last nine months, the carrier’s net loss more than doubled to a total loss of $135m. It is hoped that the five year strategic plan being tabled today will transform the airline by 2024.

 

Travel News | eTurboNews

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United Airlines plans nonstop service between New York/Newark and Cape Town

April 15, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

United Airlines today applied with the U.S. Department of Transportation for authority to begin new service between New York/Newark Liberty International Airport and Cape Town International Airport. United plans to operate nonstop three-times weekly flights to Cape Town starting in December 2019.

“We are always looking at ways to expand our industry-leading international route network to offer our customers more convenient options. We’re thrilled to announce the addition of Africa to our global route offering,” said Patrick Quayle, United’s vice president of International Network. “This new flight will provide customers with the only nonstop service between the United States and Cape Town.”

United’s nonstop service between New York/Newark and Cape Town will decrease the current travel time from New York to Cape Town by more than four hours and provide customers from more than 80 U.S. cities with easy one-stop access to Cape Town. If approved, United’s service between New York/Newark and Cape Town will be operated with Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft featuring 48 seats in United Polaris business class, 88 seats in United Economy Plus and 116 seats in United Economy.

Proposed Flight Schedule, Beginning December 15, 2019*

From To Depart Arrive Aircraft
New York/Newark Cape Town 8:30 p.m. 6:00 p.m. +1 Boeing 787-9
Cape Town New York/Newark 8:50 p.m. 5:45 a.m. +1 Boeing 787-9

*Subject to government approval

Cape Town is the oldest city in South Africa and the country’s center of trade and commerce. Located at the shore of Table Bay, the city is home to some of the most popular attractions in South Africa including Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. Travelers to South Africa often begin their African journey in Cape Town before touring the Cape Winelands, viewing the African penguins at Boulder Beach or traveling beyond Cape Town to explore South Africa’s natural beauty including its many national parks, game reserves and beautiful coastlines and beaches of the KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape provinces.

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Keeping Alitalia airline afloat: 900 million euro bridge loan conversion

April 11, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

Italy’s last council of ministers have approved a new decree law with 11 new rules presented by the Minister of Economic Development, Luigi Di Maio. Among these, at the last minute, is the regulation allowing for the conversion of part of a bridge loan – 900 million euros granted to Alitalia airline in May 2017 – into equity, and, therefore, into a share package (about 15%) of the new company that will be presented by Italia Railways (FS).

In short, the go-ahead for the Treasury to become a shareholder of the new Alitalia in a scheme is official, but all has yet to be defined. At the same time, in fact, an okay was given to the extension of another month (from March 31 to April 30) to FS for the presentation of an industrial plan to the extraordinary commissioners.

The company led by Gianfranco Battisti would have preferred a longer margin that would also cover the month of May, in order to have more time to contract the entry of the other partners.

Between the Ministry of Economy and Finance (15%), FS (30-40%), and Delta (10%), a large percentage is still uncovered which has not yet met stakeholders’ approval.

With CDP, (a loan banc) Poste (the Mail Group) and Fincantieri, which have repeatedly confirmed their lack of interest in the operation, the tracks leading to China Eastern and Atlantia (Autostrade concessionaire and reference shareholder of Aeroporti di Roma) would still be alive.

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New LCC airline set to launch

April 2, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

“With Board approval for this exciting new airline granted just six months ago, seats going on sale so swiftly is a remarkable achievement,” said Peter Foster, President and CEO of Air Astana, who acknowledged the hard work of the many people at the airline who have played such a big part in shaping the new carrier and readying it for launch.

Inaugural domestic routes will be from Almaty International Airport to Taraz and Uralsk, with information at flyarystan.com.

FlyArystan, the brand-new Eurasian low fare airline from Kazakh flag carrier, Air Astana, is on the final countdown to the launch of services on May 1, 2019.

The new airline will be flying Airbus A320 aircraft configured with 180 economy seats on both routes.  Operating daily, FlyArystan will offer more than 130,000 seats on each of the routes annually.

“FlyArystan adds strength to what we can now call the Air Astana Group.  It enables us to effectively compete in the growing low-cost travel segment in our country on better than equal terms with other airlines. FlyArystan gives us the opportunity to grow the overall market by taking customers from other forms of travel and we are proud to be playing an important social and economic development role in Kazakhstan by creating this exciting new airline,” said Foster.

“FlyArystan presents a great opportunity for both Kazakhstan citizens and foreign visitors to travel more easily and comfortably across this vast country with lower air fares,” added Tim Jordan, the new head of FlyArystan. “With only a month to go before the launch of our first services to Taraz and Uralsk, we are delighted at the immediate strong market response and look forward to welcoming our first customers in May.”

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Shenyang EXPO begins third year with optimism

April 1, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

hree major exhibitions since March 15th have very successfully launched the third year of operations at the Shenyang New World EXPO (“EXPO”). The combined attendance exceeded 124,000 visitors and two of the three shows grew over 10% in licensed area compared to 2018.

Diane CHEN, EXPO General Manger expressed confidence that Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province in northeast China, would continue to experience growth. She cited excellent facilities, location and absolute government support as factors igniting the growth since the venue opened in March of 2017. Shenyang boasts of an excellent international airport with nearly 400 daily arrivals and departures along with high speed train service connecting all major cities in northeast China including Beijing. The city’s population exceeds 8 million.

Despite that China’s economy has slowed somewhat, management of the Shenyang New World EXPO (‘EXPO’) is significantly optimistic about the potential growth of the exhibition and meeting industry in Shenyang. Regional and national organisers are also showing serious interest in the market.

The first three major exhibitions of 2019, all recurrent, included the 2019 Advertising Festival (organised by Shanghai Modern International Exhibition Co., Ltd), the 21st China Northeast International Dental Equipment & Affiliated Facilities Exhibition Symposium on Oral Health and the 25th China Northeast International Building & Decoration Exhibition (both the latter exhibitions organised by Liaoning Northern Exhibition Co., Ltd).

Cliff Wallace, who led in EXPO’s operational and functional planning as well as its management staff organisation said, “I am especially pleased that the Dental Exhibition was audited by UFI, The Global Association of the Global Industry. I anticipate approval by UFI as the venue’s first UFI Approved Event.”

Liaoning Northern Exhibition GM, LI Zhi Song stated, “I anxiously await the anticipated news from UFI confirming our Dental Exhibition has achieved UFI approved status. An “UFI Approved Exhibition” is proof of high quality, thus providing exhibitors and visitors alike with the assurance of making a sound business investment.”

Wallace is an Honorary President of UFI and continues to advise EXPO relative to achieving its vision which is to be among China’s best venues with a dedicated professional staff delivering superb levels of customer care.

Four major exhibitions will be held in April again signifying the success of EXPO, northeast China’s newest venue offering 24,000 sqm (260,000 sq ft) of rental space to the market for exhibitions, conference and other events. In addition to transportation advantages including the venue’s own connected METRO station, the city continues to expand its hospitality industry adding state-of-the-art major brand hotels. Rooms within 10 km (6 miles) of EXPO now total over 19,000.

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Aviation Safety: Fatigue management

March 28, 2019 by Forimmediaterelease

In aviation operations, managing fatigue is important because it diminishes an individual’s ability to perform almost all operational tasks. This clearly has implications for operational efficiency, but in situations where individuals are undertaking safety-critical activities, fatigue-effected performance can also have consequences for safety outcomes. Fatigue is a natural consequence of human physiology.

Because fatigue is affected by all waking activities (not only work demands), fatigue management has to be a shared responsibility between the State, service providers and individuals.

A brief history of flight and/or duty limitations

For most workers, hours of work are part of the working conditions and remuneration packages established through industrial agreements or social legislation. They are not necessarily established from a safety perspective.

However, the need to limit pilots’ flight and duty hours for the purpose of flight safety was recognized in ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) in the first edition of Annex 6 published in 1949.  At that time, ICAO SARPs required the operator to be responsible for establishing flight time limits that ensured that “fatigue, either occurring in a flight or successive flights or accumulating over a period of time, did not endanger the safety of a flight”. These limits had to be approved by the State.

By 1995, ICAO SARPs required States to establish flight time, flight duty periods and rest periods for international flight and cabin crew. The onus was on the State to identify “informed boundaries” that aimed to address the general fatigue risk for flight operations nationally. At no time have ICAO SARPs identified actual flight and duty hours because it had proven impossible to identify global limits that adequately addressed operational contexts in different regions.While ICAO SARPs apply only to international operations, many States also chose to establish similar flight and duty time limitations for domestic operations. States generally used the same flight and duty limits for helicopter crew as for airline crew.

The fallacy of flight and/or duty limitations is that staying within them means that operations are always safe. Buying into this fallacy suggests that scheduling to the limits is enough to manage fatigue-related risks. However, more recent SARP amendments related to prescriptive limits have highlighted the responsibilities of the operator to manage their particular fatigue-related risks within the limits using their SMS processes.

And then there was FRMS….

Fatigue Risk Management Systems (FRMS) represent an opportunity for operators to use their resources more efficiently and increase operational flexibility outside the prescriptive limits, whilst maintaining or even improving safety. In implementing an FRMS, the onus shifts to the operator to prove to the State that what they propose to do and how they continue to operate under an FRMS, is safe.

In 2011, SARPs enabling FRMS as an alternative means of compliance to prescriptive limitations were developed for aeroplane flight and cabin crew (Annex 6, Part I).  At the time of development, it was necessary to address concerns that airline operators would take this as an opportunity to schedule purely for economic benefits at the cost of safety. Therefore, while often referred to as “performance-based” approach, the FRMS SARPs are nevertheless very prescriptive about the necessary elements of an FRMS and require the explicit approval of an operator’s FRMS by the State.

Since then, similar FRMS SARPs were made applicable for helicopter flight and cabin crew in 2018 (Annex 6, Part III, Section II).

But what about air traffic controllers?

Despite their obvious impact on flight safety outcomes, ICAO SARPs have never required the hours of work to be limited for air traffic controllers even though some States have had hours of duty limitations for air traffic controllers for many years. This is about to change. Amendments to Annex 11, becoming applicable in 2020, will require that ICAO States establish duty limits and specify certain scheduling practices for air traffic controllers. As for international airline and helicopter operations, States will have the option of establishing FRMS regulations for air traffic service providers.

Fatigue Management SARPs today

Today, ICAO’s fatigue management SARPs support both prescriptive and FRMS approaches for managing fatigue such that:

  • Both approaches are based on scientific principles, knowledge and operational experience that take into account:
    • the need for adequate sleep (not just resting while awake) to restore and maintain all aspects of waking function (including alertness, physical and mental performance, and mood);
    • the circadian rhythms that drive changes in the ability to perform mental and physical work, and in sleep propensity (the ability to fall asleep and stay asleep), across the 24h day;
    • interactions between fatigue and workload in their effects on physical and mental performance; and
    • the operational context and the safety risk that a fatigue-impaired individual represents in that context.
  • States continue to be obliged to have flight and duty time limitations but are under no obligation to establish FRMS regulations. Where FRMS regulations are established, the operator/service provider, can manage none, some or all of its operations under an FRMS, once approved to do so.
  • Prescriptive fatigue management regulations now provide the baseline, in terms of safety equivalence, from which an FRMS is assessed.

In practice…

In Airlines:  The Fatigue Management amendments to the Annex 6, Part I, in 2011 led many States  to reviewing their prescriptive limitation regulations for pilots based on scientific principles and knowledge (refer text box) and identifying further requirements for operators to manage their fatigue-related risks within the prescribed limits.  Fewer States have reviewed their prescriptive limitation regulations for cabin crew.

In every case, despite a refocus on providing adequate opportunities for sleep and recovery, altering existing flight and duty limitations remains a very sensitive and difficult task because it impacts income and work conditions as well as the constraints of pre-existing employment agreements. It is made even more challenging for States whose flight and duty time limitations are legislated.

Where States have reviewed their prescribed flight and duty limits, the increased awareness of the relationship between sleep and performance has served to highlight the responsibilities of the individual crew member and the airline to manage fatigue, and in some cases have resulted in the prescribed limits sitting alongside a set of regulations  that make these responsibilities more explicit, e.g. the FAA’s Fatigue Risk Management Program, EASA’s Fatigue Management requirements, CASA’s Fatigue Management requirements and CAA South Africa’s Fatigue Management Program.

The scientific principles of fatigue management

 

  1. Periods of wake need to be limited.  Getting enough sleep (both quantity and quality) on a regular basis is essential for restoring the brain and body.
  2. Reducing the amount or the quality of sleep, even for a single night, decreases the ability to function and increases sleepiness the next day.
  3. The circadian body-clock affects the timing and quality of sleep and produces daily highs and lows in performance on various tasks.
  4. Workload can contribute to an individual’s level of fatigue.  Low workload may unmask physiological sleepiness while high workload may exceed the capacity of a fatigued individual.

Many States have established, or plan to establish, FRMS regulations, often at the encouragement of their airlines. The FRMS challenge for States continues to be whether they have the resources to provide the necessary oversight from a scientific and performance-based perspective, particularly when the same regulations usually apply to a variety of domestic flight operations. While FRMS requirements are onerous and time-consuming, the few airlines who have so far managed to get FRMS approval for particular routes have found the operational flexibility gained to be worth the effort.

General scheduling principles

 

  1. The perfect schedule for the human body is daytime duties with unrestricted sleep at night. Anything else is a compromise.
  2. The circadian body clock does not adapt fully to altered schedules such as night work.
  3. Whenever a duty period overlaps a crew member’s usual sleep time, it can be expected to restrict sleep. Examples include early duty start times, late duty end times, and night work.
  4. The more that a duty period overlaps a crew member’s usual sleep time, the less sleep the crew member is likely to obtain. Working right through the usual nighttime sleep period is the worst case scenario.
  5. Night duty also requires working through the time in the circadian body clock cycle when self-rated fatigue and mood are worst and additional effort is required to maintain alertness and performance.
  6. The longer a crew member is awake, the worse their alertness and performance become.
  7. Across consecutive duties with restricted sleep, crew members will accumulate a sleep debt and fatigue-related impairment will increase.
  8. To recover from sleep debt, crew members need a minimum of two full nights of sleep in a row. The frequency of recovery breaks should be related to the rate of accumulation of sleep debt.
  9. Keep short notice changes to a minimum, especially where they infringe or overlap the  Window of Circadian Low (WOCL).
  10. Duty periods associated with high workload (such as multiple, challenging landings and in marginal weather conditions) may need to be shortened and extensions avoided where at all possible.

In Helicopter Operations:  For some States, the recent amendments to Annex 6, Part II (Section II) have highlighted the need to establish flight and duty time limits for helicopter crew members that better relate to the context of helicopter operations, rather than using the same limits as for airline pilots. Within those limits, the helicopter operator is expected to build crew schedules that use both fatigue science and operational knowledge and experience.

A new fatigue management guide for helicopter operators, currently under development in ICAO, identifies general scheduling principles based on fatigue science to guide helicopter operators in building “fatigue-aware” schedules that offer optimum opportunities for sleep and recovery (refer text box).

The particular challenge in helicopter operations, however, is that so many helicopter operations are unscheduled. While some helicopter operators will be able to operate within prescribed limits and effectively manage fatigue risks using an SMS, many types of helicopter operations, such as those that require unscheduled, immediate responses, possibly in high-risk settings, will benefit from the operational flexibility and safety gains of an FRMS.

In Air Traffic Control Services: Next year, States are expected to have established prescriptive work hour limits for air traffic controllers, while FRMS regulations remain optional and can be established at any time. However, the nature of the relationship between the Air Navigation Services Provider (ANSP) and the State will influence how the implementation of fatigue management regulations will unfold. In most cases, the State provides oversight of only one ANSP and although there is a current trend for privatisation, many of the ANSPs are fully or partially owned by the State.

In an industry sector that is often largely self-regulated, the distinction between a prescriptive fatigue management approach and FRMS may become blurred. However, a refocus on safety and not only organisational expediency or personal preference is likely to have substantial effects on the way controllers’ work schedules are built in ANSPs across the world. This is a “watch this space”.

Fatigue Management Guidance for ICAO States

The Manual for the Oversight of Fatigue Management Approaches (Doc 9966) received another update this year – Version 2 (Revised) – and an unedited version (in English only) will shortly replace the current manual available for download here. On this website you can also find the following:

  • Fatigue Management Guide for Airline Operators (2nd Edition, 2015)
  • Fatigue Management Guide for General Aviation Operators of Large and Turboject Aeroplane (1st Edition, 2016)
  • Fatigue Management Guide for Air Traffic Service Providers (1st Edition, 2016)
  • The Fatigue Management Guide for Helicopter Operators (1st Edition) is expected to be available later this year.

The Fatigue Management Guide for Helicopter Operators (1st Edition) is expected to be available later this year.

The author, Dr. Michelle Millar, is the Technical Officer (Human Factors) and the NGAP Program Manager at ICAO. She heads the ICAO FRMS Task Force and has been involved in the development of ICAO fatigue management provisions since 2009. Her academic background is in sleep, fatigue and performance.

 

Travel News | eTurboNews

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