Regional Airline Operations

One rapidly growing area in aviation is regional, sometimes called commuter, airline operations. Regional flight operations have recently drawn attention from the FAA, NTSB, Congress, and pilot unions regarding fatigue. A variety of factors have been suggested that may contribute to fatigue, sleep, and circadian disruption in regional operations. A survey study has recently been completed by the Fatigue Countermeasures Group, in collaboration with the FAA, to identify and quantify these factors.

The survey was distributed at twenty-six air carriers across the U.S. The data provide unique information regarding the extent of these factors in regular operations and their potential effect on flight crewmember performance. The report includes recommendations for addressing fatigue issues.

Click the icon below for the full report in Acrobat® PDF format

NASA/TM_1999_208799 (216K)