Date: 201207
Flight conditions: VMC
Aircraft: A319
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Cruise
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Captain; Pilot Not Flying
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human factors: Fatigue
Anomaly: Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: In-flight
Result: General None Reported / Taken
Contributing factors: Company Policy; Human Factors
Primary problem: Human Factors

Narrative: In cruise flight I was unable to stay awake for many portions of the flight from LAS to ZZZ. This was due to many factors leading up to this specific segment. First; the 4 day pairing was created with 2 early morning show times followed by 2 later in the day shows. Each day; except the last; had a 3 hour sit built into it pushing the duty days to 11 plus hours. The third day we left early evening and after arriving in LAS sat for 3 hours waiting to go to ZZZ on the red eye flight. I was unable to get any sleep at the hotel prior to our first leg. I awoke very early that morning; and with my body acclimated to night rest periods and nothing I did could stem the onset of the severe fatigue as it set in during cruise flight. I tried to adjust the lighting; have conversation with the other pilot; anything to stay awake but still found myself dosing off periodically. This is an extremely unsafe situation that the company has created within these new pairings. It may be legal per the FARs; or the contract; but in no way is it safe. Many problems with the airplane or weather that could have occurred during one of these times may have gone unnoticed. Not all things that go wrong in the airplane have an ECAM to tell you. Pilots need to be able to be vigilant at all times for any problem; and yet with the way these pairing are built it seems the company has no interest in safety and only in the money they can make optimizing the flying. Change the guidelines of how the pairings are built. Also it needs to be considered that red eye plus one means a red eye with a leg either before or after the red eye. Red eye flights should be stand alone flights if built within one of these convoluted pairings. If the pairing is a series of red eyes; that would be fine; you can accumulate your body to that period with appropriate rest. It is important to know that you can not save up your rest to be used later. In other words you can not sleep if you anticipate being tired. The human body can only properly rest when it is tired or in a post work environment not in a pre work environment. The company; as well as the FAA needs to understand I will have no problem in the future if faced with this situation again to divert the airplane because of my fatigue to any airport I can find. I refuse to put the lives of myself; my crew; and the passengers at risk because of the ignorance embedded within these pairings. I guarantee if we have any kind of serious accident in the future it will involve on of these multi-leg red eye pairings.




Synopsis: A319 Captain laments the fatiguing trip parings that his company is creating. These parings include shifts from early to late flying; three hour sits between legs; and red eye flights with a leg before or after the red eye leg.