Canadian Aviation Regulations · SOR/96-433
Scheduling Obligations
Your operator must give you your schedule far enough ahead to plan real rest, and must check monthly whether a flight's max FDP is being blown more than 10% of the time over 90 days — if so, fix the schedule or pairing within 28 days.
Applies to 703704705 · in force since December 12, 2020
Another operator obligation — but it’s the one that’s supposed to stop a schedule from quietly depending on you being extended every trip.
Enough notice to plan rest
The operator must give you your schedule sufficiently in advance to plan for adequate rest (700.21(1)). There’s no fixed number, but the AC says the notice should be longer for disruptive duties (early, late, night) or duties that hit the window of circadian low, and points to the reserve notice periods in 700.70 (12 h / 32 h) as a reasonable benchmark (AC 700-047 § 4.7).
The 10% check
Each month, the operator must check whether a given flight’s maximum FDP is being exceeded more than 10% of the time over any 90 consecutive days (700.21(2)).
If that threshold is crossed because of unforeseen operational circumstances, the operator must change the schedule or the crew pairing for that flight within 28 days of the finding (700.21(3)). If schedules are set seasonally, the fix may wait until the same season next year (700.21(4)).
Related
Regulation text — CARs 700.21
Reproduced from the consolidated Canadian Aviation Regulations ( SOR/96-433) on the Justice Laws website. CARs 700.21
700.21 (1) An air operator shall provide a flight crew member with their schedule sufficiently in advance for them to plan for adequate rest.
(2) An air operator shall, on a monthly basis, determine if a flight crew member’s maximum flight duty period with respect to a flight is exceeded more than 10% of the time in a period of 90 consecutive days.
(3) If an air operator determines that more than 10% of a flight crew member’s maximum flight duty periods are exceeded as a result of an unforeseen operational circumstance, the air operator shall change the schedule or the flight crew member pairing for the flight not later than 28 days after the day on which the determination is made.
(4) If the air operator sets schedules on a seasonal basis, the changes referred to in subsection (3) may be delayed until the beginning of the same season in the following year.
What changed in 2018
In plain language
New with the 2018 rules: an explicit "schedule for real rest" obligation and a feedback loop — schedules that repeatedly rely on unforeseen-circumstance extensions must be redesigned.
Paraphrased from Advisory Circular 700-047 .