Nearly a quarter of European pilots fly while too fatigued to work, ECA survey finds

Survey results

The European Cockpit Association (ECA), a federation of professional pilots, ran the survey in August among captains and first officers in 32 European countries. It counted 7,198 respondents, including 240 pilots from Belgium. Three in four said they had experienced at least one microsleep, a short and unintended spell of sleep, while on duty during the four weeks before the survey. Nearly a quarter said they usually keep flying rather than declare themselves unfit because of fatigue, and 16.8% said they call in sick in that situation instead. Microsleeps were most common among crews working for carriers based in Ireland and Malta.

Causes of fatigue and reporting gaps

Irregular rosters and long duty days are cited as the main causes of exhaustion, and more than a third said their rest is too thin to keep tiredness from accumulating. Crossing several time zones upsets the natural sleep rhythm. Reporting is the weak point: just a third of pilots normally declare themselves unfit once exhausted, and 11.9% have confidence in their carrier's fatigue reporting system. Almost half fear repercussions from their bosses if they declare themselves unfit. Half of the pilots said that in the three months before the poll they had flown at least once while they should have reported themselves unfit, and without those reports airlines have little to plan around.

Usually fly when too fatigued to work24%

Call in sick instead of declaring unfit16.8%

Flew when they should have declared fatigue (past three months)50%

Trust airline fatigue reporting system11.9%

Usually fly when too fatigued to work

24 %

Call in sick instead of declaring unfit

16.8 %

Flew when they should have declared fatigue (past three months)

50 %

Trust airline fatigue reporting system

11.9 %

Data from the article text

Pressure and differences between carriers

Pilots also report pressure to fly beyond the legal limit. More than a third invoked the commander's discretion in the month before the survey, the captain's exceptional power to extend the maximum duty period or shorten it when unforeseen circumstances arise. One account puts the share fearing negative consequences for refusing to extend a shift at about 60%, another at 70%. Another report says about 40% exceeded the legal maximum at least once in the four weeks before the survey. Carriers with Dutch or Finnish licences performed noticeably better, while those with Irish or Maltese licences, like low-cost airlines, ranked near the bottom. Two in five pilots at Spanish airlines and one in three at French airlines said they usually fly tired, against one in ten at British airlines.

Industry response

ECA board member Coen George said in a press release that when pilots fear for their careers, fatigue goes unreported and the risk returns to the cockpit. He said airlines and authorities must make reporting genuinely non-punitive so the captain can act on his own judgment. The ECA said the picture has not improved since its previous survey of this kind in 2023. De Tijd, which obtained the report, wrote that airlines have made no progress against fatigue since that earlier study. Ian Holder, who heads Baines Simmons, an aviation safety consultancy, pointed to persistent differences in how airlines and national authorities deal with fatigue.

“This survey captures how European pilots experience fatigue risk management in practice.”

Holder stressed that the results describe what pilots have lived through, not a direct measurement.