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A320 captain laments the schedule created by the company's automated bidding system creates and reports calling in fatigued after nearly 14 days on the road.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 867681 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201001 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.ARTCC |
| State Reference | US |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | A320 |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Cruise |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain Pilot Not Flying |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 257 Flight Crew Total 24500 Flight Crew Type 4015 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types |
Narrative:
Enroute I notified crew scheduling of pilot fatigue. Feeling of being tired; irritable; yawning. The reason for the fatigue was the inhumane schedule the automated bidding system awarded for the month of december and january. Basically working 8 days on 1 day off then 6 days on. 1 day off in 15. This schedule caused a chronic fatigue of either sleep and wake times inconsistent. Five long 25 hour plus; boring and fatiguing layovers in both east and west time zones; and 2 all night events. Basically no personal down time. This all being legal because the crew scheduling department designs unproductive low flight hour; long layover trips. Average was 3.8 hours of flying per day thus there was no 30/7 problem but chronic fatigue because of no time off. Additional cause of the fatigue that morning was a restless nights sleep due to a family situation at home. The problem with pilot fatigue at my air carrier is solely caused by poor scheduling and line construction which has no regard to pilot lifestyle. My air carrier is intentionally oppressing the pilot group trying to suck the life out of them as much as possible; hoping they will quit; to weaken them without regard to safety. Safety was never jeopardized on the flight. I was released from duty and allowed to go home after being gone almost 2 weeks.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A320 Captain laments the schedule created by the company's automated bidding system creates and reports calling in fatigued after nearly 14 days on the road.
Narrative: Enroute I notified crew scheduling of pilot fatigue. Feeling of being tired; irritable; yawning. The reason for the fatigue was the inhumane schedule the automated bidding system awarded for the month of December and January. Basically working 8 days on 1 day off then 6 days on. 1 day off in 15. This schedule caused a chronic fatigue of either sleep and wake times inconsistent. Five long 25 hour plus; boring and fatiguing layovers in both east and west time zones; and 2 all night events. Basically no personal down time. This all being legal because the crew scheduling department designs unproductive low flight hour; long layover trips. Average was 3.8 hours of flying per day thus there was no 30/7 problem but chronic fatigue because of no time off. Additional cause of the fatigue that morning was a restless nights sleep due to a family situation at home. The problem with pilot fatigue at my air carrier is solely caused by poor scheduling and line construction which has no regard to pilot lifestyle. My air carrier is intentionally oppressing the pilot group trying to suck the life out of them as much as possible; hoping they will quit; to weaken them without regard to safety. Safety was never jeopardized on the flight. I was released from duty and allowed to go home after being gone almost 2 weeks.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.