FAA Reaffirms Cargo Carrier Exclusion from Duty Rule

The FAA has determined that its December 2011 rulemaking on pilot flight duty and rest requirements for Part 121 passenger carriers was correct in excluding all-cargo operators from the stricter rules.  

The Independent Pilots Association (IPA) representing UPS pilots has challenged the rulemaking in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Last May, the FAA asked the court to suspend the litigation so that it could review the rule’s cost-benefit analysis. The agency said that it had discovered “inadvertent errors” relating to the cost to cargo operators of implementing the rule, which takes effect on January 4, 2014.

In an “initial supplementary regulatory impact analysis” published Wednesday in the Federal Register, the FAA said its review “provides greater justification for the exclusion of cargo operations from the final rule. … As a result, the FAA has determined that no revisions to the final rule on either cargo or passenger operations is warranted.”

In a statement, the ILA described the FAA’s supplementary analysis of the rulemaking as “flawed,” and said it will file detailed comments.