DGCA unlikely to extend June 1 deadline to implement new FDTL rules

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is unlikely to extend the June 1 deadline for the airlines to implement the new flight duty time limitation (FDTL) norms, government officials said on Tuesday.

A few days back, Federation of Indian Airlines — which comprises IndiGo, Air India, Vistara and SpiceJet — wrote a letter to the regulator asking it to defer the deadline by one year as about 25 per cent more pilots would be needed to implement the new norms. The airlines said that they won’t be able to hire and train these many pilots by June 1.

However, the government officials clarified that the rules were issued in early January and six months is more than enough time to implement the new norms.

In a bid to ensure better fatigue management, the DGCA on January 8 revamped the FDTL regulations. The latest rules include additional rest for pilots, revision of night duty regulations, and directions for airlines to submit pilot fatigue reports. The regulator has mandated airline operators to comply with the new notification by June 1 this year.

The new mandate has increased weekly rest periods for flight crew to 48 hours in a week from the previous 36 hours.

The definition of 'night' in the FDTL regulations has also been tweaked. Previously, night was defined as the time between midnight to 5 am. But now, night will cover the time between midnight to 6 am, giving flight crew an extra hour of rest during the early morning.