Hyderabad: In a complete U-turn, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) which was adamant on the implementation of the revised flight duty norms for pilots that were to be effective from June 1 suddenly changed its stand and has deferred its implementation.
In the amended Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) uploaded late night on March 26, the DGCA said that the airlines may continue the existing Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules without mentioning any timeline.
This move comes after the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) consisting of IndiGo, Air India, and SpiceJet last month wrote to DGCA to postpone the June 1 deadline, highlighting that the implementation of new rules would require the airlines to hire “15% to 25%” more pilots for which they needed 8-10 months.
And also added that there would be more "cancellations" of the flight in the upcoming summer season if the DGCA would not postpone the deadline.
In its response, DGCA back then said that the revised schedule would be implemented from June 1.
According to the revised rules, the weekly rests for pilots which was earlier 36 hours per week has now been extended to 48 hours per week, thus "ensuring sufficient time for recovery from cumulative fatigue" as per the DGCA.
Similarly, for the purpose of night duty, the definition of the night has been amended and will now cover the period from midnight to 6 AM instead of midnight to 5 AM under the earlier rule. The maximum flight duty period for flights encroaching night-time has also been reduced from 10 to eight hours.
The maximum duty time and number of landings that pilots can make is restricted to two under the revised rules. Also, it is compulsory for all airlines to submit quarterly fatigue reports, which “should follow a non-punitive and confidentiality policy".
This decision is being seen as a major win for the airlines while air safety and pilot safety have taken a back seat.
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