Indian airlines try new crew, pilot rosters to cut fatigue, health issues

Fatigue can cause a pilot to make wrong decisions (Representative image)

Airlines including Air India, Vistara, Air India Express, Akasa Air, SpiceJet and IndiGo are trying out new cabin crew and pilot rosters to address growing concerns over fatigue and health issues.

The airlines are implementing schedules so that pilots don’t fly both morning and night flights within a 24-hour period, a senior official from the civil aviation ministry told Moneycontrol.

"The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is working with all Indian airlines to create more pilot and cabin crew-friendly rostering schedules and reduce fatigue," the official said.

He added that while the DGCA has not changed the flight duty time limitation (FDTL) norms, it is testing new schedules.

"The DGCA is working with airlines to conduct trials under which part of the airline's roster will be divided into morning and night rotating schedules," a senior DGCA official said.

He added that all Indian airlines have volunteered to be a part of the rostering trials. Feedback will be collected to assess the efficiency, practical implementation, and physiological and psychological state of tiredness and weariness of the fight crew before taking a call on new FDTL norms.

Sudden death

Currently, the FDTL norms do not differentiate between day and night flights and allow pilots to be on duty for 13 hours within a 24-hour span.

The US Federal Aviation Administration allows pilots to be on duty for a maximum of 14 hours during the day and for nine hours for late-night flights within a span of 24 hours. Pilots on duty during the day are not allowed to operate at night and can fly again only after a minimum 10-hour rest, according to the FAA norms.

The DGCA started a review of pilot fatigue data last month after the sudden death of IndiGo pilot Manoj Balasubramani, who fell unconscious while on duty on August 17 at Nagpur airport and passed away.

The incident raised questions about mounting fatigue among airline crews, responding to which the DGCA said that the August 17 flight at 1300 IST from Nagpur was the pilot’s first flight of the day and that he had received 27 hours of rest after his previous flight. He had operated a flight each from Thiruvananthapuram to Pune and Pune to Nagpur on August 16.

On July 6, an IndiGo flight from Dehradun to Chennai was delayed by several hours as the pilot complained of fatigue.

Air traffic in India surpassed pre-Covid levels for the fifth straight month in July when airlines carried 12.1 million passengers.

An Air India pilots' grouping raised fatigue concerns last month in the wake of flight crew rosters being generated using a new tool, saying longer waiting periods between duty times would jeopardise crew alertness and performance.

"Extended waiting periods, occurring before active flight duties, run counter to enhancing crew readiness and, in fact, contribute to the accumulation of fatigue over time," the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) said.

In a letter to Air India head of safety Henry Donohoe last week, the IPG said the relentless pursuit of operational efficiency and economic gains has led to an unintended overshadowing of the primary intent behind FDTL regulations.

Furthermore, Captain Shakti Lumba, a retired vice president at IndiGo, also took to Twitter last month to garner support to raise awareness and lodge concerns over fatigue with authorities and airlines.

Despite most airlines and airport operators in India eyeing growth and announcing expansion plans, most of India’s pilots, cabin crew, and engineering fraternity are still struggling in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most pilots, cabin crew, and ground handling staff in India are underpaid and overworked compared to their international compatriots.

The aviation market in India, currently the third-largest in the world, is expected to report exponential growth for the next 10 years.

While most stakeholders are optimistic and betting big on the growth of the sector, pilots in the country are concerned that this may be accompanied by deteriorating work standards

The DGCA mandates that all airlines follow FDTL norms, which include requiring all crew members to fly a maximum of eight hours in a day, 35 hours in a week, 125 hours in a month, and 1,000 hours in a year. Every crew member must be given rest, which will be twice the flight time, subject to a minimum of 10 hours in any 24 consecutive hours.

The regulator defines flight fatigue/pilot fatigue as a physiological and psychological state of tiredness and weariness. It can be caused by prolonged periods of wakefulness and/or insufficient restorative sleep.

Fatigue can cause a pilot to make wrong decisions or even fall asleep inside the cockpit, leading to a fatal crash. Every airline is required to formulate its own FDTL scheme, which must be compliant with the DGCA regulations.