This poses a real danger.
Pilots representing the two major carriers have issued a new warning that fatigue is soaring among their ranks, and they're urging the airlines to consider this issue—along with the human mistakes it could trigger—as a safety hazard.," the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association explained to the airline's top brass in a widely covered letter, as reported by CNN Business.
The pilots cite mass cancellations caused by weather conditions as well as strong demand for air travel—all while the airlines still struggle to recover from the pandemic's impact on business—as the major sources contributing to the widespread fatigue in the cockpit. In the letter to executives, the union explained that the number of pilots who reported being unable to work because of fatigue spiked massively last fall, including a 600 percent increase in October alone and another"staggering" 330 percent increase just last month, with the dangerous trend on pace to continue.Shutterstock
To better understand the conditions pilots face now, consider that passenger numbers are currently about 90 percent where they were at this time in 2019, before the pandemic hit, per Transportation Security Administration data reported by CNN Business. According to Bureau of Transportation Statistics data, meanwhile, the major U.S. carriers are still about 3,000 employees short of the staffing levels from the same period.
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