DGCA likely to come out with fresh guidelines on block hours

Aviation regulator DGCA is likely to come out with fresh guidelines on block hours, a yardstick for on-time performance, to remove disparity among various airlines.

Block hours refer to the moment a commercial aircraft leaves the departure gate until it lands and reaches the arrival gate, or till its engines are working.

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An airline's on-time performance as well as facilities and financial compensation to a flyer in case of delay are determined on the basis of block hours.

Block hours differ from route to route. Some airlines reported good on-time performance by showing additional block hours for a particular flight compared to same flights of competing airlines, sources said.

"We want to standardise the existing block hours for different routes. We are studying various routes for this purpose. We want to ensure that all airlines use the same block hours for the same route," they said.

Traffic data of various airlines of the past five years has been collected and is being analysed as part of the standardisation exercise, they said.

According to the sources, while the flying time between Delhi and Mumbai is approximately 1.28 hours, the block hours for the route stand at a maximum of 2.10 hours.

"However, some airlines show additional block hours and because of this they report before time or on-time arrival despite departing late, an anomaly which is being addressed by DGCA now," the sources said.