The Delhi High Court on December 6, asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to consider implementation of the new proposed norms on duty and rest timings for pilots from early 2025 to ensure sufficient rest for pilots, in order to minimize the risk of untoward incidents.
Hearing a writ petition filed by the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), the Air India Pilots’ Union, the Indian Pilots’ Guild, and the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Guild Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju on December 6 asked the DGCA to hold a meeting with pilots association, airlines and Ministry of Civil Aviation on December 18, 2024, to come out with a timeline for the implementation of the new proposed flight duty time limitation, or FDTL, norms.
The meeting will be part of the mediation exercise ordered by Delhi High Court. A meeting between pilot associations and airlines was held on November 13, 2024, and another meeting was scheduled by the DGCA earlier, but no one from Air India attended it.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati appearing on behalf of the DGCA indicated in court that the DGCA was looking to notify the new FDTL norms by July 2025 to be implemented in a phased manner. Justice Ganju questioned why the norms could not be notified sooner since they were ready for implementation in January 2024.
The Delhi High Court will hear the matter next on January 23, 2025.
Several pilots groupings, including the Federation of Indian Pilots, the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association, and the Indian Pilots Guild filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court in 2019 against the norms formulated by the regulator on pilot duty and rest hours.
In January 2024, the DGCA issued a new set of norms allowing airlines until June 1 to implement them. These reduced the pilots’ night-time flying and enhanced their weekly rest from 36 hours to 48 hours.
However, in a dramatic reversal of its position, the DGCA on March 26 put the rules in abeyance and removed the implementation deadline of June 1. Later, the DGCA asked airlines to suggest a convenient timeline.
DGCA put the new rules on hold after facing severe resistance from airlines that warned the rules would force them to cancel 20 percent of the flights at the peak of the summer travel season. The regulator had in March 2024 said that airlines can continue to comply with the old FDTL norms, issued in 2019, "till approval of their respective scheme in compliance with this CAR (civil aviation requirement)".
The Federation of Indian Airlines, an industry body, had opposed the new norms on the ground that the six-month timeline for implementation was inadequate as enhanced rest meant airlines would now need to hire '10 percent to 20 percent' more pilots, failing which there would be flight cancellations.
Industry participants also indicated that the DGCA’s decision to withhold the new rules came after the Ministry of Civil Aviation decided that cancellation of flights during the peak summer season would cause greater public discomfort.
In March 2024, the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) wrote a letter to the civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and DGCA underlining the need to implement the revised FDTL norms considering passenger safety. In the letter, FID said the health and safety of the pilots cannot be prejudiced for the commercial benefit of the operators.
In a letter dated March 28, FIP urged Scindia’s intervention to ensure that the civil aviation regulator implements the revised rules as announced earlier. The FIP, the Air India Pilots’ Union, the Indian Pilots’ Guild, and the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Guild also moved the Delhi High Court over duty timings.
The DGCA in April 2024 had asked Indian carriers to "indicate" a timeline to prepare and implement the new FDTL norms for pilots.
"In light of the observations made by the Honourable Court during the aforesaid hearing, you may kindly indicate the timeline required to prepare a roadmap for implementation of the revised FDTL norms and the timeline for subsequent implementation of the same," the DGCA had said in a letter to major Indian carriers in April.
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