Aviation regulator DGCA postpones deadline for new rules on pilot rest and duty hours

Bangalore:

India’s aviation regulator has postponed the June 1 deadline for airlines to adopt new rules on pilot rest and duty hours, a notice on its website showed, without giving a reason or a new target date.

Tuesday’s news comes after The Economic Times last month reported a warning from a major airline lobby group that scrambling to comply with the new rules could force the cancellation of as many as a fifth of flights.

The rules, announced in January, would increase crew members’ weekly rest time from 36 to 48 hours and reduce pilots’ night flying duties from 13 hours to a maximum of 10 hours.

However, in a revised website notification this week, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) allowed airlines to retain the old norms for the time being.

The changes to the rules followed a review of pilot fatigue data obtained from spot checks and airline monitoring after a pilot at budget airline IndiGo collapsed and died before a flight in August.

The Aviation Federation of India has warned of the risk of flight cancellations as the regulator does not have enough time before the deadline to hire and train the 25% of pilots needed to meet the new regulations, the Economic Times reported.

Last week, Tata Group-owned Air India was fined Rs 80 lakh by the regulator for violating flight duty hours and fatigue management limits.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)