On 14 May, over 300 pilots and cabin crew from across Europe demonstrated in front of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in Cologne to express their concerns regarding the Agency’s proposal for future rules on flight time limitations. During the next two days, EASA held a technical stakeholder meeting to review the proposal. However, the disappointing outcome of the meeting showed that EASA did not hear the concerns raised two days before.

Around 11:30 on 14 May, hundreds of European pilots and cabin crew marched towards EASA. They warned the Agency that it will be “Sleepwalking into disaster” if it stays on the path it has taken so far and if it does not align their proposal with what science shows to be safe.

In a joint speech, ECA’s President Nico Voorbach and ETF Political Secretary François Ballestero reiterated pilots’ and cabin crew’s commitment to passenger safety. They denounced the airlines’ strong lobbying to base future rules on commercial interests rather than on scientific advice and flight safety. EASA’s Executive Director, Patrick Goudou, accepted to address the crowd for a short and rather general speech. He tried to reassure the pilots and cabin crew that the Agency’s first priority was still flight safety, rather than the operators’ commercial considerations. He then however refused to stay and respond to concrete questions from the audience, and instead preferred to have a private meeting in his office.

At this meeting, ECA and ETF reiterated their request for a scientific assessment of the latest proposal – a request that has been formally introduced to EASA two months before, and to which no answer had been received since then. Mr Goudou, however rejected the request, claiming that such an assessment would have no added-value for EASA’s work. Instead, EASA has already all the answers they need. Clearly, EASA considers itself to have more expertise than the scientists themselves…

This impression was confirmed by EASA’s technical meeting, during the following two days. The meeting was driven by the airlines cost arguments, whilst ECA’s and ETF’s science-based arguments were mostly rejected. The most likely outcome: EASA’s already insufficient proposal will be watered down even further.

In a joint statement at the end of the meeting, ECA and ETF expressed their deep disagreement on the way the meeting went and on the Agency’s alarmingly open attitude towards the operators’ “concerted effort to weaken safety protections in order to lower airlines’ costs”

The 300 air crew in front of EASA were a signal that we will not allow the Agency and other EU Institutions to ignore scientific evidence and take passenger safety lightly. So far, they have not been heard. This will have to change.