July 18, 2013

U.S. Department of Transportation

Docket Operations

West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE

Washington, DC 20590

Subject: Petition for Exemption

Reference: Flightcrew Member Duty and Rest Requirements

Dear Sir or Madam:

In accordance with the provisions of Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) §11.63 and §11.81, 

Airlines for America and the Regional Airline Association, on behalf of their members that carry 

passengers (See enclosure 1) and similarly-situated air carriers, petition for a limited exemption from 14 

CFR 121 subparts Q, R and S (part 121 FDT), which prescribe flight time limits and rest requirements for 

U.S. carriers, to operate under pending 14 CFR part 117 flightcrew member duty and rest requirements. 

Specifically, we request that FAA permit U.S. airlines that carry passengers the option to implement 14 

CFR part 117 early, between December 9, 2013 and January 4, 2014 to reduce the potential impact on 

the flying public and reduce the regulatory burden of implementing a significant new regulation. 

Background 

On January 4, 2012, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published a final rule adopting new 

flightcrew duty and rest rules applicable to U.S. passenger carrying airlines.1 The FAA provided a twoyear implementation period, with an effective date of January 4, 2014. U.S. passenger airlines have been 

working diligently to implement part 117 over the past 18 months and will continue to do so until the 

effective date of the regulation. 

Implementation Flexibility

The part 117 effective date falls during an extremely busy time period for passengers and airlines and 

flexibility is needed to provide carriers options to avoid potential disruptions to the national airspace 

system (NAS). Major system changes over the past several years have disrupted passenger travel, a 

scenario this exemption will help avoid. For example, a Customs and Border Protection computer glitch 

at Los Angeles airport resulted in delaying thousands of passengers for several hours.2 In addition, the 

holiday season is one of the highest load factor time periods during the year, so glitches in the NAS, 

should they occur, would impact more travelers and will make recovery efforts more difficult. Finally, most 

 

1

77 Fed. Reg. 330.

2

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2007-08-12-lax-glitch_N.htm; See also FAA system delays 

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/BusinessTraveler/faa-computer-glitch-delays-flights-nationwide/story?id=9124958#.UcivUOXD_Gg; 

United and Continental merger system delays http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/major-computer-failures-delay-unitedairlines-passengers-country-article-1.1146600
Petition for Exemption – Part 117 Implementation

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July 18, 2013

air carriers run flightcrew member schedules on a monthly or multi-week basis. This exemption will 

alleviate the programming burden of building one flightcrew schedule under part 121 FDT rules for the 

first four days of January 2014 and building another schedule to meet part 117 for the remaining 27 days 

of January 2014.

The Applicable Regulations and Relief Sought

U.S. airlines that carry passengers currently operate under part 121 FDT regulations. We seek 

exemption from 14 CFR subparts Q, R and S, which prescribe the flight time limits and rest requirements 

for U.S. carriers.

Reasons for seeking the relief include: 

1) The exemption is narrowly focused seeking a short window for carriers to implement part 

117.

2) Permitting carriers to implement on different days will reduce the impact and system 

vulnerability of an entire industry switching crew planning software and algorithms the same 

day.

3) The exemption time period will assist carriers in avoiding the heaviest holiday travel days.

4) It will ease the burden of building two different crew schedules to accommodate two different 

regulations in the same month.

5) FAA support and resources needed during the implementation will also be spread out.

Without the requested relief all carriers will implement new scheduling protocols on the same day, 

increasing the risk of software or operational issues. 

Therefore, for those carriers who wish to begin implementing part 117 FDT rules before January 4, 2014, 

we request relief from the requirement to operate under existing part 121 FDT regulations starting as 

early as December 9, 2013 and to instead operate under part 117. 

Granting the Exemption Would be in the Public Interest

Absent this relief, every U.S. airline that carriers passengers will implement part 117 on January 4, 2014. 

If any one or several carriers have glitches in the reprogrammed crew scheduling software, the traveling 

public will be impacted because scheduling detailed and extensive flightcrew duty and rest requirements

and matching those schedules with aircraft that operate around the world is an extremely complex 

process. While carriers will make every effort to prevent and recover from anomolies, solutions will be 

complex and time consuming that could result in significant impacts to the traveling public. In addition, 

load factors on aircraft are high; therefore, abundant capacity is not available to recover when there are 

cancellations or delays. 

Granting the Exemption Would Not Adversely Affect Safety

Operating under part 117 early will not adversely impact safety; airlines will apply what the FAA has 

determined to be an improved regulation.

A Summary of this Petition that FAA Could Publish in the Federal Register

Petitioners: Airlines for America and the Regional Airline Association

Affected Regulations: 14 CFR 121 subparts Q, R and S.

Summary of Relief Sought: The relief would provide U.S. airlines that carry passengers the option to 

implement new pilot duty and rest requirements up to one week early.
Petition for Exemption – Part 117 Implementation

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July 18, 2013

Granting this exemption is in the public interest as it avoids potential, unpredictable disruptions in 

passenger airline service.

Reasons for Exercising the Privileges of the Requested Exemption Outside the United States.

Application of this exemption outside the U.S. is required because new FAA pilot duty time and rest 

regulations that apply to U.S. airlines that carry passengers do not distinguish between domestic and 

international operations. Part 117 applies to scheduling of flightcrew members worldwide. 

Conclusion

For the foregoing reasons, we respectfully request an exemption from the requirements of 14 CFR 121 

subparts Q, R, and S for the period of December 9, 2013 to January 4, 2014 for those carriers who elect 

to implement part 117 early.

Respectfully submitted July 18, 2013 by:

Daniel K. Elwell Scott Foose

Senior Vice President, Safety, Senior Vice President, Operations and Safety

Security and Operations Regional Airline Association

Airlines for America 2025 M Street, NW

1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Suite 800

Suite 1100 Washington, DC 20036

Washington, DC 20004

 

Enclosures/

cc:

Mr. John Allen

Federal Aviation Administration

Director, Flight Standards Service, AFS-1 

800 Independence Ave., SW 

Washington, DC 20591 

Mr. John Duncan

Federal Aviation Administration

Deputy Director for Policy, Flight Standards, AFS-2P

800 Independence Ave., SW 

Washington, DC 20591 
Petition for Exemption – Part 117 Implementation

Page 4

July 18, 2013

Mr. Les Smith

Federal Aviation Administration

Flight Standards Service 

Air Transport Division, AFS-200

800 Independence Avenue, S.W.,

Washington, DC 20591

Mr. Dale Roberts

Federal Aviation Administration

Flight Standards Service

Air Transport Division, AFS-200

800 Independence Avenue, S.W.,

Washington, DC 20591
Enclosure 1

Passenger Airline Association Members

Airlines for America Regional Airline Association

Alaska Airlines Air Wisconsin Airlines Corp.

American Airlines AirNet Systems

Atlas Air, Inc. American Eagle Airlines

Delta Air Lines, Inc. Chautauqua Airlines

Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. Champlain Enterprises

JetBlue Airways Corp. Compass Airlines

Southwest Airlines Co. Empire Airlines

United Airlines, Inc. Era Aviation

US Airways, Inc. ExpressJet Airlines

Air Canada (Associate Member) GoJet Airlines

Grand Canyon Airlines

Great Lakes Aviation

Hawaii Island Air

Horizon Air Industries

Hyannis Air Service (Cape Air)

Jazz Aviation

Mesa Airlines

New England Airlines

Piedmont Airlines

Pinnacle Airlines

PSA Airlines

Republic Airlines

Seaborne Airlines

Shuttle America Corp.

Silver Airways Corp.

SkyWest Airlines

Trans States Airlines