EMB ERJ 190/195 ER/LR
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Workload; Fatigue
Other Fatigue
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Company Policy; Staffing
My crew and I experienced about a 6 hour delay before our first leg. This had us leaving after midnight local time. We went on duty at late afternoon before sunset. Nobody ever called us to notify us of rolling delays to departure. The only call we did receive was about boarding passengers and departure. Our destination airport rest was reduced from scheduled and we anticipated arriving shortly before dawn. We would then have to report early afternoon to work a 5 leg day. Staff more crews so that we would not have to wait about 6.5 hours to get a Reserve Captain to fly the right seat. Understand that having legal rest doesn't mean 'safe' or appropriate rest. We were expected to sleep at a hotel all morning when cleaning staff and hotel operations are awake and making noise. Other hotel guests are slamming doors and making noise too. In order to eat anything; we would have to interrupt rest cycles to eat and attempt to sleep again in the remaining time before show. We cannot fly a 5-leg day without eating. A 5-leg day is a busy day when you brain is potentially not engaged all the way due to a weird rest situation. Understand that nobody flew that wasn't fit to fly; however; this situation is completely preventable if the company would 'adequately staff' the airline which is required by the pilot working agreement.
An ERJ-190 Captain reported that because of staffing issues; his trip departed six hours late; arrived at the hotel near sunrise and after a minimum rest they were scheduled to flying 5 legs fatigued.