DGCA unlikely to relax new flight duty norms despite demands from airlines: Sources

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is not weighing options on the relaxation of new flight duty norms it released in January this year, sources told Business Today TV.

The Federation of Indian Airlines, a group of domestic airlines, in its letter to the DGCA, called the six-month deadline until June insufficient and requested to defer the implementation of new rules on pilot rest and duty period by a year.

The Federation of Indian Airlines is an association consisting of IndiGo, Air India, Vistara, and SpiceJet. These airlines are of the opinion that these new regulations will require them to increase the number of pilots by 25%, and hiring them will not be possible within six months, until June, which could force them to cancel 20% of their flights.

The new flight duty rules were announced by the DGCA in early January. The rules rewrite the definition of the night period, extending it by an hour from 12 am-5 am to 12 am-6 am, and limiting the duty period to 10 hours. It also caps the number of landings a pilot can do to two.

The DGCA has also cut down the period for which airlines can exceed the limit during unforeseen circumstances, such as bad weather or air traffic delays, from three to two hours.