The Effect of Regional Airline Attendance Policies on Pilot Self-Removal from Duty for Illness or Fatigue

The purpose of this paper was to study the effect of current regional airline attendance policies on the willingness of crewmembers to remove themselves from duty when ill or fatigued. This study sought to determine if the current punitive attendance policies are encouraging crewmembers to operate contrary to federal regulation. A survey was given to current pilots of four regional airlines with similar attendance policies. The responses were correlated with supplied demographic and experiential data. The goal of the paper was to examine the major areas of concern and suggested solutions. The overwhelming majority of respondents felt that their companies’ fatigue, illness, and attendance policies were punitive, either by design or implementation, and were also more likely to state that these policies affected their decision to remove themselves from duty when ill or fatigued.