Croatian pilots and cabin crew have joined today’s protest against the proposal for a new European regulation on the working hours of aircraft crew members by distributing informational leaflets, which is taking place in 41 European countries.
Members of the Croatian Air Traffic Pilots Union (HSPP) and the Aircraft Cabin Crew Union (SKOZ) have refrained from taking to the streets, opting to symbolically show their support for the protest by distributing informational leaflets and wearing support badges.
Croatia Airlines has prohibited the wearing of support badges on uniforms, so pilots and cabin crew are only distributing leaflets and badges to passengers at Zagreb Airport in three major waves – in the morning, around noon, and in the evening, said Captain Tomislav Gradišar from HSPP to Hina. In the airports of Split, Dubrovnik, and Pula, leaflets have been left at information desks.
Explaining the reasons for the protest, Gradišar states that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) wants to introduce a new regulation on the working hours of aircraft crews that will negatively impact the safety of passengers and crew members.
If adopted, this regulation would be automatically implemented in Croatia, leaving domestic legislation powerless, says Gradišar.
The regulation that EASA wants to introduce allows, for example, continuous work for pilots of 11 hours during night flights, despite warnings from scientists that exceeding ten hours significantly increases risk.
According to him, pilots and cabin crew have already managed to postpone the implementation of the new regulation originally scheduled for the end of 2012, and it is now coming up for discussion in the European Parliament after Easter.
