Bernard Gervais, executive director of the Northern Air Transport Association (NATA), has shot back at what he considers adverse reporting by some news outlets over the organization’s efforts to have Transport Canada (TC) be flexible in its application of pilot duty times.
As we reported last week, NATA has called TC’s 2020 adoption of ICAO’s recommended standard of a 13-hour duty time limit a “one-size-fits-all approach”.
“Presenting a sensationalized picture of the safety rules intended to alarm passengers and pressure politicians helps no one,” said Gervais in a Nov. 9 press release. “Our communities should not be punished by negotiating tactics in a labour dispute.”
“Safety is non-negotiable for all our operators,” said NATA in this week’s press release. “But safety also requires regulation capable of distinguishing a duty day in the North from a routine operating day in a major urban centre with available relief pilots.”
Transport Canada has presented NATA operators with flexible exemptions taking into consideration their environmental realities, and these await ministerial approval.
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