BEFORE THE

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION

WASHINGTON, D.C.

------------------------------------------------------ In the matter of: :

: Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking : for Qualification, Service, a nd Use of : Dock et No. FAA

- 2008

- 0677 Crewmembers and Aircraft Dispatchers :

REQUEST TO EXTEND PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD

The Air Transport Association of Americ a, Inc., Cargo Airline Association, Air Carrier

Association of America , Regional Airline Associa tion, and National Air Carrier

Association on behalf of their members, and Boeing C ompany and Airbus Americas, Inc. have a strong interest in the Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SNPRM) that

was published in the Federal Register on May 20 , 2 011 . The SNPRM would rewrite the qualification and training requirements for pilots, flight engineers, flight attendants, and dispatchers

. 1 A 60

- day comment period, closing July 19 , 20 11 , has been provided. For the reasons set forth below, we respectfu lly request the FAA to grant an additional 180 days for comment and to take certain other steps so the public has reasonable and sufficient

time to review the proposed rule and the FAA can clarify this extensive and complex proposal.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been working on a rewrite of pilot, flight engineer, flight attendant, and dispatcher qualification and training requirements for many

years. An Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) was established in May 2004, with 41 representati ves from across industry , resulting in a set of recommendations to the FAA in April 2005. In 2009, the FAA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with an initial

120

- day comment th at was subsequently extended by 90 days. FAA also held a public meeting on April 7 , 2009 at which the agency received many questions concerning the NPRM. The FAA responded to those questions through several responses posted in the

docket in June of 2009. Stakeholders submitted extensive comments in August of 2009, suggestin g , among other actions, that the agency reconstitute the ARC to assist with responding to and addressing public comments. Twenty

- one months after the close of the

NP RM comment period

, the FAA issued this SNPRM.

The propos al is extensive and complex a nd will require stakeholders to closely examine the changes made from the NPRM to the SNPRM

. The proposal alone is 671 pages, which

does not include the 83

- page regulatory evaluation

, the 286

- page FAA Technical

Document

, and three draft Advisory Circulars totaling over 100 pages

. It is impossible for

even the most interested stakeholders to review and provide meaningful comment on these

six documents totaling over 1,000 pages to the FAA in 60 days

. We provide examples

1 76 Fed. Reg. 29336, May 20, 2011.2

below of complex and time

- consuming review tasks that must be completed to provide FAA with meaningful comments.

We are , of course, committed to effective training and appreciate the FAA’s effort to
ensure that safety

- critical employees receive that training. Our commitment is seen in the

extensive FAA

- approved training and qualification programs already in place

, participation

in the May 2004 ARC , the April 7, 2009 public meeting, extensive comments in the docket, and offers to respond to public comments by reconstituting the ARC

. We all will bring that same commitment to safety and focus i n reviewing the FAA SNPM during this comment period.

One difficultly in providing comments in such a short time

- frame is that each carrier will

have to assess the impact of the new SNPRM standards on current training programs . As

the FAA clarified in the preamble, it is now clear that this SNPRM will impact AQP

carriers. T he preamble also states that i t took the FAA 30 hours per carrier fleet to compare an existing AQP program to the SNPRM requiremen ts. Using the FAA estimates, it will take carriers with at least 6 different fleets of aircraft 180 hours to assess the impact of this rule or a significant portion of the allotted comment period ; and this is only one aspect of the review.

Another time

- c onsuming necessity will be a review of the FAA Regulatory Evaluation. On the benefits side, FAA identifies 178 accidents that must be reviewed and correlat ed to provisions in the SNPRM. While the FAA states that “For each of these accidents, AFS develope d a regulatory change that could have mitigated each accident,” 2 we could not find an analysis linking a specific accident to a specific proposed regulatory requirement. As a result, stakeholders will have to try to re

- create the benefit analysis without knowing which

accident relates to a new or revised regulatory requirement.

We also note that there are a number of key stakeholder comments to the NPRM that were

misunderstood or not directly addressed in the SNPRM. For instance, the syllabus and

simulator hours presented in the FAA Technical Report do not appear to be consistent with industry est imates or recent Aviation Rulemaking Committee training hour estimates. These discrepancies will also have to be resolved during the comment period

.

Having spent enormous resources and time on this project

, we should not shortchange the rulemaking process at this point

. T he FAA should allow the public to understand the proposal so that interested parties may fully participate and provide the informed comment

necessary to produce a viable final rule

. The proposal allows for a five

- year implementation schedule, so an additional 1 8 0 days will not substantially delay the rule.

G iven the extensive coordination this proposal will require and given the importance of this rulemaking

– in terms of advancing crewmember qualification and training , the extensive changes to training programs it may require and the resulting potential cost burden on industry

– the proposed 60 day time period is inadequate under the APA and as

2 Regulatory Evaluation, page 7.3

a matter of due process

. We therefore request that the public comment period for this proceeding be extended for an additional 18 0 days

.

Respectfully submitted,

David A. Berg Edward P. Faberman

Vice President & General Counsel Executive Director Air Transport Association of America, Inc

. Air Carrier Association of America

Oakley Brooks Roger Cohen

President President

National Air Carrier Association Regional Airline Association

Bill Bozin Steve Al terman
Vice President

, Safety and Technical Affairs President Airbus Americas, Inc. Cargo Airline Association

C apt. Terry L. McVenes Director, Operational Regulatory Affairs Boeing Commercial Airplanes

May 25 , 2011