Pilots warn over longer hours

Flights could be delayed or cancelled

Airline pilots across Europe are staging a campaign against plans to increase their flying hours.

They say that proposals from the European Parliament could lead to pilots flying for as long as 14 hours a day, on top of six hours of preparation time.

A total of 17 European pilots' organisations, representing 31,000 pilots, are joining the protest.

The BBC's labour correspondent Stephen Cape explained that the European Parliament had long wanted to standardise hours across Europe for airline pilots.

Danger level

"The idea is to increase them just slightly. This of course has angered pilots in the UK but also right across Europe and in the United States as well."

The British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa) says the move will increase hours by about 12%, leading to an increase from 12 hours to 14 hours.

On top of that, it says, there is standby time at airports and flight checks, which could lead to a pilot working 20 hours.

BALPA is arguing that it will be unsafe and wrong to work such long hours, and that it goes against the Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA) own recommendations.

Unions say that feelings are running very high and that there could be strike action.

Italian action

Italian pilots are due to strike on Tuesday, complaining that they are overworked and warning that this new ruling could threaten flight safety.

Pilots and flight attendants will refuse to work for four hours, causing Italy's national carrier Alitalia to cancel 136 flights.

The last thing airlines want is a strike. Most have been struggling in the past 18 months so "they will probably want to settle this dispute quite quickly," Mr Cape said.

"What the pilots' organisations are saying, is that if they want to increase hours, let's actually take it to scientific and medical people - experts who can actually decide how many hours should a pilot actually work."

The CAA in the UK says it does not mind the idea of standardising hours, but it does have some concerns which it shares with the union.

Balpa thinks that if it can gain enough support then it might be able to stop the European Parliament progressing with this idea.