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ORO.FTL.105 Definitions

ANNEX III (Part-ORO) · Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 · EAR revision 27 Mar 2026

IRImplementing rule

ORO.FTL.105Definitions

For the purpose of this Subpart, the following definitions shall apply:

(1)‘acclimatised’ means a state in which a crew member’s circadian biological clock is synchronised to the time zone where the crew member is. A crew member is considered to be acclimatised to a 2-hour wide time zone surrounding the local time at the point of departure. When the local time at the place where a duty commences differs by more than 2 hours from the local time at the place where the next duty starts, the crew member, for the calculation of the maximum daily flight duty period, is considered to be acclimatised in accordance with the values in the Table 1. Table 1

Time difference (h) between reference time and local time where the crew member starts the next dutyTime elapsed since reporting at reference time
<4848–71:5972–95:5996–119:59≥120
< 4BDDDD
≤6BXDDD
≤9BXXDD
≤12BXXXD

‘B’ means acclimatised to the local time of the departure time zone, ‘D’ means acclimatised to the local time where the crew member starts his/her next duty, and ‘X’ means that a crew member is in an unknown state of acclimatisation.

(2)‘reference time’ means the local time at the reporting point situated in a 2-hour wide time zone band around the local time where a crew member is acclimatised;

(3)‘accommodation’ means, for the purpose of standby and split duty, a quiet and comfortable place not open to the public with the ability to control light and temperature, equipped with adequate furniture that provides a crew member with the possibility to sleep, with enough capacity to accommodate all crew members present at the same time and with access to food and drink;

(4)‘suitable accommodation’ means, for the purpose of standby, split duty and rest, a separate room for each crew member located in a quiet environment and equipped with a bed, which is sufficiently ventilated, has a device for regulating temperature and light intensity, and access to food and drink;

(5)‘augmented flight crew’ means a flight crew which comprises more than the minimum number required to operate the aircraft, allowing each flight crew member to leave the assigned post, for the purpose of in-flight rest, and to be replaced by another appropriately qualified flight crew member;

(6)‘break’ means a period of time within an flight duty period, shorter than a rest period, counting as duty and during which a crew member is free of all tasks;

(7)‘delayed reporting’ means the postponement of a scheduled FDP by the operator before a crew member has left the place of rest;

(8)‘disruptive schedule’ means a crew member’s roster which disrupts the sleep opportunity during the optimal sleep time window by comprising an FDP or a combination of FDPs which encroach, start or finish during any portion of the day or of the night where a crew member is acclimatised. A schedule may be disruptive due to early starts, late finishes or night duties.

(a)‘early type’ of disruptive schedule means:

(i)for ‘early start’ a duty period starting in the period between 05:00 and 05:59 in the time zone to which a crew member is acclimatised, and

(ii)for ‘late finish’ a duty period finishing in the period between 23:00 and 01:59 in the time zone to which a crew member is acclimatised;

(b)‘late type’ of disruptive schedule means:

(i)for ‘early start’ a duty period starting in the period between 05:00 and 06:59 in the time zone to which a crew member is acclimatised; and

(ii)for ‘late finish’ a duty period finishing in the period between 00:00 and 01:59 in the time zone to which a crew member is acclimatised;

(9)‘night duty’ means a duty period encroaching any portion of the period between 02:00 and 04:59 in the time zone to which the crew is acclimatised;

(10)‘duty’ means any task that a crew member performs for the operator, including flight duty, administrative work, giving or receiving training and checking, positioning, and some elements of standby;

(11)‘duty period’ means a period which starts when a crew member is required by an operator to report for or to commence a duty and ends when that person is free of all duties, including post-flight duty;

(12)‘flight duty period ('FDP')’ means a period that commences when a crew member is required to report for duty, which includes a sector or a series of sectors, and finishes when the aircraft finally comes to rest and the engines are shut down, at the end of the last sector on which the crew member acts as an operating crew member;

(13)‘flight time’ means, for aeroplanes, the time between an aircraft first moving from its parking place for the purpose of taking off until it comes to rest on the designated parking position and all engines or propellers are shut down.

(14)‘home base’ means the location, assigned by the operator to the crew member, from where the crew member normally starts and ends a duty period or a series of duty periods and where, under normal circumstances, the operator is not responsible for the accommodation of the crew member concerned;

(15)‘local day’ means a 24-hour period commencing at 00:00 local time;

(16)‘local night’ means a period of 8 hours falling between 22:00 and 08:00 local time;

(17)‘operating crew member’ means a crew member carrying out duties in an aircraft during a sector;

(18)‘positioning’ means the transferring of a non-operating crew member from one place to another, at the behest of the operator, excluding: the time of travel from a private place of rest to the designated reporting place at home base and vice versa, and the time for local transfer from a place of rest to the commencement of duty and vice versa;

(19)‘rest facility’ means a bunk or seat with leg and foot support suitable for crew members' sleeping on board an aircraft.

(20)‘reserve’ means a period of time during which a crew member is required by the operator to be available to receive an assignment for an FDP, positioning or other duty notified at least 10 hours in advance.

(21)‘rest period’ means a continuous, uninterrupted and defined period of time, following duty or prior to duty, during which a crew member is free of all duties, standby and reserve.

(22)‘rotation’ is a duty or a series of duties, including at least one flight duty, and rest periods out of home base, starting at home base and ending when returning to home base for a rest period where the operator is no longer responsible for the accommodation of the crew member.

(23)‘single day free of duty’ means, for the purpose of complying with the provisions of Council Directive 2000/79/EC, a time free of all duties and standby consisting of one day and two local nights, which is notified in advance. A rest period may be included as part of the single day free of duty.

(24)‘sector’ means the segment of an FDP between an aircraft first moving for the purpose of taking off until it comes to rest after landing on the designated parking position.

(25)‘standby’ means a pre-notified and defined period of time during which a crew member is required by the operator to be available to receive an assignment for a flight, positioning or other duty without an intervening rest period.

(26)‘airport standby’ means a standby performed at the airport;

(27)‘other standby’ means a standby either at home or in a suitable accommodation;

(28)‘window of circadian low ('WOCL') means the period between 02:00 and 05:59 hours in the time zone to which a crew member is acclimatised.

IR · ORO.FTL.105 — Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 · Regulation (EU) 2018/1975 · Air OPS Easy Access Rules · EAR revision 27 Mar 2026

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GM1 ORO.FTL.105(1)Definitions

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ACCLIMATISED

(a)A crew member remains acclimatised to the local time of his or her reference time during 47 hours 59 minutes after reporting no matter how many time zones he/she has crossed.

(b)The maximum daily FDP for acclimatised crew members is determined by using table 1 of ORO.FTL.205(b)(1) with the reference time of the point of departure. As soon as 48 hours have elapsed, the state of acclimatisation is derived from the time elapsed since reporting at reference time and the number of time zones crossed.

(c)A crew member is considered to be in an unknown state of acclimatisation after the first 48 hours of the rotation have elapsed unless he or she remains in the first arrival destination time zone (either for rest or any duties) in accordance with the table in ORO.FTL.105(1).

(d)Should a crew member’s rotation include additional duties that end in a different time zone than his or her first arrival destination’s time zone while he or she is considered to be in an unknown state of acclimatisation, then the crew member remains in an unknown state of acclimatisation until he or she:

(1)has taken the rest period required by CS FTL.1.235(b)(3) at home base;

(2)has taken the rest period required by CS FTL.1.235(b)(3) at the new location; or

(3)has been undertaking duties starting at and returning to the time zone of the new location until he or she becomes acclimatised in accordance with the values in the table in ORO.FTL.105(1). To determine the state of acclimatisation, the two following criteria should be applied:

(i)the greater of the time differences between the time zone where he or she was last acclimatised or the local time of his or her last departure point and the new location; and

(ii)the time elapsed since reporting at home base for the first time during the rotation.

GM · GM1 ORO.FTL.105(1) — Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 · ED Decision 2019/019/R · Air OPS Easy Access Rules · EAR revision 27 Mar 2026

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GM2 ORO.FTL.105(1)Definitions

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ACCLIMATISED ‘POINT OF DEPARTURE’ The point of departure refers to the reporting point for a flight duty period or positioning duty after a rest period.

GM · GM2 ORO.FTL.105(1) — Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 · ED Decision 2014/017/R · Air OPS Easy Access Rules · EAR revision 27 Mar 2026

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GM3 ORO.FTL.105(1)Definitions

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ACCLIMATISED ‘TIME ELAPSED SINCE REPORTING AT REFERENCE TIME’ The time elapsed since reporting at reference time for operations applying CS FTL.1.235(b)(3)(ii) at home base refers to the time elapsed since reporting for the first time at home base for a rotation.

GM · GM3 ORO.FTL.105(1) — Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 · ED Decision 2014/017/R · Air OPS Easy Access Rules · EAR revision 27 Mar 2026

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GM1 ORO.FTL.105(2)Definitions

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REFERENCE TIME

(a)Reference time refers to reporting points in a 2-hour wide time zone band around the local time where a crew member is acclimatised.

(b)Example: A crew member is acclimatised to the local time in Helsinki and reports for duty in London. The reference time is the local time in London.

GM · GM1 ORO.FTL.105(2) — Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 · ED Decision 2014/017/R · Air OPS Easy Access Rules · EAR revision 27 Mar 2026

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GM1 ORO.FTL.105(3)Definitions

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ADEQUATE FURNITURE FOR ‘ACCOMMODATION’ Adequate furniture for crew member accommodation should include a seat that reclines at least 45° back angle to the vertical, has a seat width of at least 20 inches (50cm) and provides leg and foot support.

GM · GM1 ORO.FTL.105(3) — Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 · ED Decision 2014/017/R · Air OPS Easy Access Rules · EAR revision 27 Mar 2026

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GM1 ORO.FTL.105(8)Definitions

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DETERMINATION OF DISRUPTIVE SCHEDULES If a crew member is acclimatised to the local time at his/her home base, the local time at the home base should be used to consider an FDP as ‘disruptive schedule’. This applies to operations within the 2-hour wide time zone surrounding the local time at the home base, if a crew member is acclimatised to the local time at his/her home base.

GM · GM1 ORO.FTL.105(8) — Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 · ED Decision 2014/017/R · Air OPS Easy Access Rules · EAR revision 27 Mar 2026

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GM1 ORO.FTL.105(10)Definitions

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ELEMENTS OF STANDBY FOR DUTY ORO.FTL.225(c) and (d) and CS FTL.1.225(b)(2) determine which elements of standby count as duty.

GM · GM1 ORO.FTL.105(10) — Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 · ED Decision 2014/017/R · Air OPS Easy Access Rules · EAR revision 27 Mar 2026

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GM1 ORO.FTL.105(17)Definitions

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OPERATING CREW MEMBER A person on board an aircraft is either a crew member or a passenger. If a crew member is not a passenger on board an aircraft he/she should be considered as ‘carrying out duties’. The crew member remains an operating crew member during in-flight rest. In-flight rest counts in full as FDP, and for the purpose of ORO.FTL.210.

GM · GM1 ORO.FTL.105(17) — Regulation (EU) No 965/2012 · ED Decision 2014/017/R · Air OPS Easy Access Rules · EAR revision 27 Mar 2026

All rules in SUBPART FTL: FLIGHT AND DUTY TIME LIMITATIONS AND REST REQUIREMENTS

Consolidated from the EASA Easy Access Rules (revision 27 Mar 2026, extracted 17 Aug 2026) for convenience. Not the official publication — verify against the Official Journal of the European Union and the EASA publications before operational use.

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