As the end of the year approaches and many people take some time off to relax and be with their families, it is worthy reflecting on those that will not be joining them for one reason or another. Firstly, those who have sadly left us, particularly those who have died whilst trying to protect their colleagues and passengers in tragic accidents. Commercial aviation is one of the safest activities a human being can undertake, but nevertheless it still occasionally claims the lives of colleagues and friends. The very real human tragedy of the - thankfully rare - aviation accident nonetheless means that we will redouble our efforts to render civil aviation even safer.

Another group of people who will not necessarily be with their family this holiday time are those who are working. Among those, there are many professional pilots who will work to ensure that people are able to travel to be with their families during the holidays, and in so doing will not be with their loved ones. We accept this is part of the job we love, just like many others who provide an essential service throughout the holidays.

You can read elsewhere in this edition of Cockpit News of the first meeting of the EASA expert group which has finally been formed to modernise the aircrew fatigue protection rules in Europe, more than a year after the Agency had received the report they had commissioned reviewing the current EU rules. We are sad to note that some others in our industry are not concerned that independent research by the continent's leading fatigue specialists clearly advises that unless the rules are tightened, a real risk exists for fatigue to compromise our high levels of safety.

Because we care about those colleagues who have been lost, and because we take our responsibilities to our passengers very seriously, we will be diligent in ensuring the revision of the aircrew fatigue protection rules is swiftly completed and based on good scientific knowledge. We demand principled regulation designed to protect us all from the insipid and potentially dangerous onset of fatigue in European flight crew.

As Santa will be flying through the night again this Christmas, we hope that he has fully rested sets of Reindeer to each work not more than 10 hours, as the science shows this is a sensible night maximum!