Fatigue Risk Management Strategies Every Airline Should Implement
Fatigue within airline operations is an invisible risk that threatens both safety and efficiency. While regulations provide a basic framework, they often fall short of addressing the complex nature of human physiology and operational realities. To truly mitigate risks, airlines should implement proactive, science-driven strategies for fatigue risk management through optimized crew schedules and workloads.
This blog outlines key practices for controlling fatigue risk, focusing on the integration of bio-mathematical models and data-driven strategies at every stage of crew management. These approaches help create safer, more productive operations and foster a healthier work environment for crew members.
Understanding fatigue risk in airline operations
Fatigue stems from several factors, such as time of day, extended wakefulness, prior sleep debt and irregular schedules. While compliance with prescribed flight time limitations (FTLs) is essential, regulation alone rarely addresses the unique challenges posed by certain flight operations. For example, a flight scheduled for a 17-hour duty crossing multiple time zones cannot simply be deemed “safe” because it meets minimum regulation thresholds.
The science behind fatigue
Human physiology follows circadian rhythms that affect alertness levels. Misaligned schedules can amplify these risks. The use of bio-mathematical models, like the Boeing Alertness Model (BAM), allows airlines to move beyond oversimplified rules and provides data-driven insights into fatigue hotspots. Such models quantify fatigue risks with metrics like Average Flight Risk (AFR) and Network Flight Risk (NFR), enabling smarter roster and pairing decisions.
Crew Alertness Prediction Interface with Boeing Alertness Model
Fatigue risk management in crew planning
An airline’s operational efficiency and safety are heavily influenced by its ability to manage fatigue risk within crew plans. Key contributors to fatigue involve extended wakefulness, circadian misalignment and inadequate restorative sleep. While regulatory flight time limitations offer a baseline framework, these oversimplifications often fail to fully address the multi-faceted nature of fatigue. Integrating a systematic approach that incorporates predictive tools and thorough analysis can provide a robust solution.
Key Practices for Effective Fatigue Management
To effectively mitigate fatigue, airlines need to integrate fatigue risk management at every stage of crew planning. Below, we examine critical steps across the crew management process.
1. Proactive planning during network and flight scheduling
Fatigue risks can be significantly reduced during the early stages of network and flight schedule creation. Proactive measures include:
Evaluating sleep and wakefulness cycles: Avoid scheduling operations that require peak performance (e.g., landings) during circadian lows (typically 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. in the body clock of the crew).
Identifying fatigue in advance: Analyze upcoming schedules well before they are operational to identify fatigue hotspots using predictive tools like bio-mathematical models.
Avoiding overscheduling: Question whether certain flights—while profitable on paper—fit within an acceptable risk appetite once fatigue is factored into the equation.
Optimized crew pairings must go beyond legal compliance and integrate measures to limit cumulative fatigue. Best practices include:
Using fatigue as a cost penalty: Incorporate fatigue risk into the cost functions of pairing optimization models, where high-risk pairings are “penalized” in the algorithm.
Balancing workloads: Pairings should distribute workload and recovery opportunities fairly, taking into account predicted alertness levels and long-term patterns in fatigue risk.
Testing for resilience: Create and test “what-if” scenarios to identify and address counterproductive hard rules, like overly long layovers that may actually elevate fatigue.
By making pairing construction fatigue-aware, airlines can shift from reactive mitigation to proactive prevention.
3. Integrated roster construction
Once pairings are created, roster construction involves further steps to manage fatigue for the individual crew members. Key strategies include:
Fair distribution of fatigue: Employ functions within planning systems to ensure fatigue is distributed equitably across the workforce, minimizing overburdening specific crews.
Balancing buffer strategies: Design buffers strategically to account for unforeseen delays but avoid over-buffering, which can inflate operational costs without significantly improving fatigue outcomes.
Crew bidding mechanisms: Enable and encourage crew members to submit preferences (e.g., avoiding night duties) while maintaining fairness in resource allocation.
These steps ensure operational integrity without compromising crew well-being.
4. Monitoring and adaptation in real time
The unpredictability of day-to-day operations means that fatigue risks must be dynamically assessed and managed. Best practices include:
Live fatigue indicators: Equip control centers with decision-support tools that display fatigue markers for each duty, highlighting flights with elevated risk levels.
Proactive crew consultations: Use tools like bio-mathematical models to identify crew at heightened risk and facilitate early discussions about operational adjustments or fitness for duty.
Localized problem solving: Minimize widespread disruptions by implementing changes that affect as few crew members as possible.
Real-time monitoring systems like Jeppesen Concert make it easier to adapt decisions quickly while keeping long-term fatigue exposure within acceptable limits.
5. Post-operation analysis and continuous improvement
Fatigue management doesn’t end after operations are executed. Post-operation analysis is critical for evaluating how effectively fatigue was managed and identifying areas for improvement. Key steps include:
Quantifying fatigue metrics: Use AFR and NFR metrics to measure the evolution of fatigue levels over time for different fleets, bases and ranks.
Investigating fatigue reports: Analyze crew-submitted fatigue reports to uncover patterns and outliers while considering independent data collection to validate these trends.
Targeted data collection: Implement surveys or automated collections of self-assessed fatigue levels at key duty times, such as top of descent, to build a more comprehensive picture of fatigue risk.
By learning from past operations, airlines can refine their fatigue risk management systems and further enhance their practices.
The Role of Integrated Solutions in Optimizing Crew Management
Adopting scientifically driven fatigue management practices is not just about compliance. It’s about establishing a culture of safety, ensuring crew well-being, crew productivity and optimizing costs. By embedding risk assessment tools across network planning, pairing, rostering and operations, organizations deliver a safer, more efficient operating environment. Adopting these best practices fosters trust—not only among operational teams but also with the crew responsible for carrying out critical duties.
Ready to learn more?
Airlines leverage our expertise in implementing robust fatigue risk management systems. Our solutions, including the Jeppesen Crew Pairing and Crew Rostering tools, enable precise management of fatigue which are further bolstered by easy add-ons such as the Boeing Alertness Model.
Discover how Jeppesen’s advanced tools can transform fatigue management, enhancing safety, efficiency, and crew well-being. Take the next step toward smarter operations—learn more today.
