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What are cabin crew duty limits — and how do they differ from pilots’?
The limits are your own, not a footnote to the flight-deck scheme — and under several authorities they are higher, on shorter rest.
Cabin crew flight-time limitations are usually discussed — when they are discussed at all — as an afterthought to the flight-deck scheme. They are not the same scheme. Under the GCAA a cabin crew member may be rostered to 210 duty hours in 28 days where a pilot stops at 190, on a rest floor an hour shorter. In Singapore it is 100 duty hours in 14 days against a pilot’s 90. In New Zealand there is no cabin-crew flight-time rule at all.
And the only record of any of it has historically belonged to the operator’s rostering system — not to the crew member the limits apply to. No tool has ever given cabin crew a record of their own. That is the gap, and it is why this table has, as far as we can tell, no equivalent published anywhere.
| Authority | State | Cabin-crew scheme, against the flight-deck one | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GCAA | United Arab Emirates | Cabin crew have their own, higher ladder: duty 60 h/7 days, 105 h/14 days, 210 h/28 days (pilots: 55/95/190), on a rest floor of 11 h (pilots: 12 h). Block-hour cap 1,000 h/12 months against pilots’ 900 — and on some route mixes the regulation itself permits up to 1,200, with a mandatory days-off package | GCAA CAR-OPS 1 / Part-ORO | Verified |
| CAAS | Singapore | Cabin crew duty caps of 100 h/14 days and 200 h/28 days (pilots: 90 and 180). No cabin-crew flight-hour limit in the scheme | CAAS ANO para 12 | Verified |
| HKCAD | Hong Kong | Cabin crew duty cap 210 h/28 days, in a CAP 371-shaped scheme | HKCAD CAD 371 | Verified |
| EASA | European Union | One scheme: cabin crew fall under the same ORO.FTL framework as flight crew, with a reporting-time provision where cabin crew report earlier than the flight crew | EASA ORO.FTL | Verified |
| FAA | United States | A separate flight-attendant scheme exists (14 CFR § 121.467); its duty limits vary with the number of attendants carried and the operation | 14 CFR § 121.467 | Verified |
| NZCAA | New Zealand | No cabin-crew flight-time regulation at all — there is no scheme to compare | — | Verified |
| CAAC | China | CCAR-121 §§ 121.491/121.493 give flight attendants their own duty and flight-time scheme — indicative until the official Chinese text is sourced | — | Verifying |
The 1,200-hour figure under the GCAA is a fact about the regulation — specific route-mix variants with a mandatory days-off package — not something any tool computes for you. Figures on this page are indicative — confirm against your Operations Manual. Not legal advice. See the verification state of all fourteen authorities →
Questions
Asked and answered
Are cabin crew duty limits the same as pilots'?
Under EASA, broadly yes — one ORO.FTL scheme covers both, with a provision for cabin crew reporting earlier. Under the GCAA, no: cabin crew have their own ladder with higher duty caps (210 h/28 days vs 190) and a shorter rest floor (11 h vs 12). Singapore likewise runs distinct cabin caps of 100 h/14 days and 200 h/28 days. The schemes are related, not identical.
Who keeps the record of a cabin crew member's duty and rest?
In practice, the operator's rostering system — and cabin crew have no personal record-keeping requirement, so most have never had a record of their own. The obligation not to begin a duty that exceeds the limits still sits with the crew member, who is asked to make that call with nothing in hand. That is the gap an independent record fills: not to prove anyone wrong, but to prove what you recorded, and when.
Do any authorities have no cabin-crew flight-time rules?
Yes. New Zealand has no cabin-crew flight-time regulation at all. At the other end, China's CCAR-121 gives flight attendants their own explicit duty and flight-time scheme — which we hold as indicative until the official Chinese text is sourced.