The COVID-19 pandemic has led some operators to seek regulatory approval for extreme extensions to flight duty periods in order to remove the need for a layover. Operators seeking such approvals may not have had experience in conducting ultra-long range flights and mitigating the associated fatigue-related risks based on scientific principles, nor of managing fatigue risks using an approved FRMS. In all cases, it is the regulator's responsibility to determine whether an acceptable level of safety can be maintained by the operator while they are in use.
It is therefore particularly important for regulators to carefully weigh the need for extreme extensions to flight duty periods with the associated safety risks and the operator's ability to manage those safety risks, given that as the pandemic period progresses, there are fewer circumstances demanding exceptional operational responses.
The following information has been put together by researchers at the Sleep/Wake Research Centre, Massey University to assist regulators and operators assess the safety implications of operations that would demand extreme extensions to flight duty periods. It summarises current scientific knowledge related to very long duty periods and is based on their previous research on ultra-long range (ULR) flight operations and the research of others on sleep and fatigue in flight.
