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Air Traffic Services•13 August 2026

Fatigue-aware rostering for air traffic controllers

Fatigue-aware rostering for air traffic controllers

Fatigue is a recognised hazard in air traffic services. ICAO Annex 11 requires States to establish regulations for the management of fatigue in the provision of air traffic control services, either through prescriptive limits on duty and rest or through a fatigue risk management system (FRMS). The Manual for the Oversight of Fatigue Management Approaches, Doc 9966, explains both approaches.

Whichever approach a State adopts, the place where fatigue risk is actually created or controlled is the roster.

What a safe roster has to respect

  • Duty and rest limits: maximum duty periods, minimum rest between duties and limits on consecutive night shifts.
  • Staffing minimums for each position and time of day, so that a sector is never left without enough qualified controllers.
  • Licence, rating and medical currency, so nobody is rostered on a position they are not current to work.
  • Breaks within each duty, planned so that position coverage is maintained.

    • Getting all of this right by hand, in a spreadsheet, for a busy unit is extremely difficult. Getting it right again every time someone swaps a shift or takes leave is harder still.

    Checks before publishing, not after

    The most effective control is simple: a roster that breaches a limit should not be publishable. When every change is checked against fatigue rules, staffing minimums and leave before the roster is released, supervisors no longer discover problems on the day of operation.

    Fair as well as safe

    Controllers notice quickly if night shifts, weekends and public holidays fall unevenly. A good rostering system tracks fairness over time and makes swaps transparent, which builds trust in the roster itself.

    SkyALITE ATS & CNS Rostering generates legal rosters for controllers and engineers, plans breaks, tracks licence and medical currency and handles shift swaps, and it will not publish a roster that breaches the rules.

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