Pilots at Qatar Airways say the state-owned airline is under-counting their work hours and ignoring complaints of fatigue – a safety breach that hurts staff health and risks passenger lives.
The testimony demonstrates how worker abuse extends even to the Gulf nation’s high-skill industries, as Qatar Airwaystries to minimise crew downtime.
“I fell asleep during the descent with 400 passengers on board,” recalled Erik of one such 20-hour flight that he landed safely at the carrier’s Doha base.
“You can’t do anything. Your body is just screaming for rest. You feel the pain inside of your chest, and you’re unable to keep your eyes open,” the first officer told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, using a pseudonym so he could speak more freely.
Erik and six other flight crew members said the airline’s work hours were driving them into exhaustion and that managers were refusing to give them enough rest.
Many did not even file fatigue reports, fearing additional scrutiny from an airline that made thousands of staff redundant in the pandemic. Others said their reports were ignored or didn’t get rest to match the shift worked.
A spokesperson said the company was engaging with employees “to ensure that the rest time and rostering needs of our Flight Crew team are strictly balanced with the airline’s operational requirements, especially given the unique challenges facing the global commercial aviation sector.”
The airline said it was working to put “the most rigorous fatigue risk management programme in place.”
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