By Allison Martell
TORONTO, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Canada's transportation
regulator has made smaller carriers exempt for now from
long-delayed rules on pilot fatigue, handing a partial victory
to the airline industry after intense lobbying, and frustrating
a major pilots' union.
In a filing with the federal register, Canada Gazette, on
Saturday, Transport Canada said it plans to cap duty time at
nine to 13 hours depending on when shifts start, down from 14
hours, among other scheduling limits.
But it restricted the changes to bigger airlines, in
contrast with a September draft that would have applied to the
whole industry. It pledged to issue rules for the smaller
carriers soon, but gave no further details.
With a federal election scheduled for October, it is not
clear what will happen to the plan, in the works since 2010,
which was meant to bring Canada in line with international
safety standards.
"We should be talking about implementation right now," said
Dan Adamus, president of the Air Line Pilots Association's
Canadian board. "We are extremely, extremely disappointed."
Transport Canada said it determined that the new rules would
have more of an impact on smaller operators: "The introduction
of the proposed changes in two phases would give smaller
carriers more time to make the operational changes needed to
meet the requirements."
John McKenna, president of the Air Transport Association of
Canada, was pleased with what he sees as a change of course from
Transport Canada. He said the draft proposal had been too
heavily influenced by pilots' unions.
McKenna, whose members include most Canadian airlines, but
not top carriers Air Canada AC.TO or WestJet Airlines Ltd
WJA.TO , said his group lobbied Transport Minister Lisa Raitt
after the draft was published, saying new rules could raise
operating costs by up to 30 percent.
"They were kind of surprised to hear that and backed off a
little bit, but the minister wanted to do something so she came
up with a revised (proposal)," he said.
Pilots in Canada can be scheduled to work for 14 hours,
which is longer than in other jurisdictions like the United
States, Australia, the European Union and India. There, limits
range from 9 to 13 hours depending on when a shift starts.
Major airlines typically have stricter limits on flight time
than what Transport Canada requires. Air Canada said its
practices "far exceed" the rules. But many smaller operators
serving remote communities as well as mines and other industrial
sites do not.
Documents obtained by Reuters under Canada's freedom of
information law show staff asked late last year for more time to
look at alternative schemes proposed by the industry.
A briefing note circulated internally in November and
December said those proposals were "not supported by fatigue
science or necessarily aligned with international standards",
but still requested more time to "work with industry" and
potentially tweak the rules.
The Gazette said commuter airlines, air taxis and operators
that use aircraft to do aerial work like mapping and sightseeing
would get their own rules "as soon as possible as part of a
future regulatory proposal."
McKenna said he expects those rules will be "more realistic"
than those in the draft.
(Editing by David Gregorio)