Airlines fight Calif. law that expands breaks for employees

DALLAS (AP) — The airline industry is escalating its campaign against a California law that gives pilots and flight attendants who are based there more rest and meal breaks than they are guaranteed under federal regulations.

A study commissioned by an airline trade group and released Tuesday warns that the result will be higher costs that would force carriers to cut flights and raise fares.

The trade group wants the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a 2021 appeals court ruling which held that California-based flight crews are covered by the state's requirement that workers be free from all job duties for 10 minutes every four hours and for a 30-minute meal break every five hours, even during flights.

The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco came in a lawsuit filed by flight attendants for California-based Virgin America, which was bought by Alaska Airlines in 2016 and no longer exists.

The dispute boils down to a question of who gets to write labor regulations covering airline workers.

The Federal Aviation Administration sets safety standards for airlines, including minimum rest requirements for pilots and flight attendants to guard against fatigue that could lead to accidents. The industry argues that since deregulation in 1978, FAA's authority has pre-empted states' efforts to oversee airlines.

Airline officials are terrified by the prospect of facing a patchwork of state rules that they say would add complexity and cost to their operations. Officials of the trade group Airlines for America said this week that 19 other states have rules on employee breaks and could apply them to flight crews unless the Supreme Court overturns the ruling against Virgin America.

Lawyers for the flight attendants who sued Virgin America say the 1978...