Definition

A period which commences when a flight or cabin crew member is required to report for duty that includes a flight or a series of flights and which finishes when the aircraft finally comes to rest and the engines are shut down at the end of the last flight on which he/she is a crew member.

Source: ICAO Annex 6 - Opearation of aircraft

Description

The flight duty period (FDP) is a period of time during which a crew member performs various tasks and includes at least one flight. In addition to the ones during flights, an FDP includes those performed by the crew member that occur before a flight segment or between flight segments without a required intervening rest period. Examples such tasks include:

• deadhead transportation;
• training conducted in an aircraft or flight simulator;
• airport/standby reserve.

In order to mitigate the risk of fatigue two types of limitations are defined: