Almost a quarter of European airline pilots say they routinely fly while too fatigued to work, according to a survey of nearly 7,200 captains and first officers conducted by the European Cockpit Association (ECA) in August 2026.

The survey found that 24% of pilots usually continue flying rather than report themselves unfit for duty because of fatigue, while another 16.8% said they call in sick instead. Three-quarters of respondents reported experiencing at least one microsleep, a brief involuntary episode of sleep, while operating an aircraft in the previous four weeks.

Half of the pilots surveyed said they had operated a flight in the three months before the survey when they should have declared themselves too fatigued to fly. Only one in three said they usually report themselves unfit for duty, and almost half said they feared negative consequences from management if they did so.

ECA president Captain Tanja Harter urged the European Union Aviation Safety Agency to strengthen fatigue management rules and ensure non-punitive reporting, saying the issue cannot be left to pilots to manage alone.

Source: The Guardian