New DGCA regulations on air traffic controller duty times across 57 airports

Flight Safety

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation's (DGCA) new norms for duty timings of air traffic controllers have been implemented at 57 airports in the country so far.

The new norms were introduced by the DGCA on January 11 despite the Airports Authority of India seeking an extension to implement these norms at smaller airports in a phased manner.

The norms have been implemented at airports including Amritsar,
Dehradun, Kishangarh, Shimla, Kanpur, Bhuntar, Gaggal, Pantnagar, and Safdarjung in the northern states of India.

Similarly, the norms have also been enforced at the airports in Trichy, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tuticorin, Calicut, Kannur, Kalaburgi, Mysore, Belgaum, Hubli, Vijayawada, Cudappah, Hyd-Begumpet, Tirupati,
Rajamundry in south India.

In the western region of the country, the norms are in place at the airports in Mopa Goa, Indore, Surat, Bhopal, Udaipur, Vadodara, Aurangabad, Hirasar, Jabalpur, Shridi, Kohlapur, Juhu.

Furthermore, eleven airports in the eastern region of India including the ones in Bhubaneshwar, Patna, Ranchi, Durgapur, Gaya, Jhasarguda, Deogar, Jagdalpur, Raipur, Khajuraho, and Kushinagar have accepted the new norms.

And finally, ten airports in the northeast region of India including the ones in Barapani, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Lengpui, Lilabari, Rupsi, Imphal, Agartala, Hollongi, and Tezu have these new norms active.

The rollout of the regulations at remaining airports would happen in a phased manner as per the roadmap indicated by AAI, the DGCA said in a press release.

Under the new norms, which are in line with the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) international standards, the DGCA mandates that the duty period of an air traffic controller cannot exceed 12 hours.

The DGCA's "Watch Duty Time Limitation (WDTL) and rest requirements for Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs)" norms further state that a controller can only be assigned duty of no more than 48 hours within seven days, or not exceeding 180 hours in 30 days.

The aviation regulator also says a controller requires 12 hours of rest between the end of one duty period and another. A controller cannot be rostered for more than six consecutive days.

The new norms were first introduced by the DGCA in November 2020, but the AAI found it difficult to comply with them as it needed more personnel to provide the mandatory rest period.

AAI had sought exemptions from these norms five times since 2020.

While similar norms are in place for pilots too, the crew members of some big airlines have been complaining of fatigue due to the use of optimising rostering softwares.