The Federal Council has proposed changes to the Air Traffic Act in the event of violations of night flight restrictions. In the future, fines should not only be imposed on pilots, but also on the respective airline as the operator or wet leaseee of the aircraft.

The Cockpit Association (VC) welcomes this draft law. It is a step in the right direction to better reflect the real responsibilities involved in violating night flight restrictions. Delays are only rarely caused by the pilots themselves, as VC notes in a broadcast. The reasons for the resulting violations of night flight restrictions are often not in the pilot's area of ​​responsibility, but are determined by external factors.

Common causes are bad weather, bottlenecks in air traffic control and in the airspace or a lack of ground handling capacity. Due to the sharp increase in time pressure in the entire air traffic system and a lack of time resources, cockpit crews are often no longer able to adequately cushion delays.

“Ultimately, the airlines are responsible for the planning of handling and flight times and thus also for insufficient or non-existent time buffers. That's why it's right that fines can also be directed against them in the future," says Vivianne Rehaag, Board Member for Flight Safety. "It would be even better to exempt cockpit crews entirely from such fine regulations in order to defuse the conflict of goals between loyalty to the employer and compliance with flight restrictions. Safety-related decisions must never be negatively influenced because a fine is about to be imposed.”