Pilots Running Out Of Allowed Flight time

Continuing what seems to be a trend this summer... the past few days haven't been real good to Northwest Airlines passengers. Once again, the carrier, fresh from bankruptcy reorganization, has had to cancel a large number of it flights at the end of the month because of a pilot shortage due to pilots reaching their allowed flight time limits.

NWA's pilot labor contract says pilots can schedule up to 90 hours of flight time each month and has a provision for a little voluntary overtime, according to USA Today.

The carrier has been blaming the weather for running the flight-time clock run out. As ANN has reported, weather related delays, such as being stuck on a runway awaiting departure, all eat into a pilots allowable flight hours.

The Air Line Pilots Association says the problem is due not only to such delays, but to management changing the work rules and pushing pilots past reasonable limits.

In the latter part of June, NWA cancelled more than 1,000 flights because of a pilot shortage that affected thousands of passengers.

Northwest spokesperson Roman Blahoski said Monday NWA completed 96 percent of its weekend flights and fully expected to complete 97.2 percent of its schedule on Monday.

The industry standard target is 98 percent.

According to data gathered by USA Today from FlightStats.com, NWA cancelled 76 flights Sunday, or 5.6 percent of those tracked by the online tracking service.

NWA has said it is implementing changes to correct the problem such as reducing its flight schedule by three percent, beginning in August, recalling laid-off pilots, and changing the way it schedules its pilots.

The ALPA has accused the carrier of laying off too many pilots during the bankruptcy then scheduling too aggressively to manipulate its cost and revenue picture to the bankruptcy court.

The ALPA said it forecasted the pilot shortage and advised management well in advance, but that warning was ignored.

Wade Blaufuss, a spokesman for the ALPA and NWA 757 first officer said the current work environment has discouraged its 385 furloughed pilots from coming back to work. He said most of those that have been called back have declined.

The union insists it is available to work with NWA management to solve the problems.

"We are the ultimate investors in Northwest Airlines. Our careers and the futures of our families are tied to the success of this airline," NWA ALPA Spokesman Capt. Monty Montgomery said. "Northwest pilots will continue to focus on safety and work hard for the success of our airline."

FMI: www.nwa.com, www.alpa.org