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Airline regulator DGCA has temporarily relaxed pilot flight duty time limitation (FDTL) for long-haul flights, a senior official said on Tuesday. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) move is aimed at ensuring pilot availability for smooth operations, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Asangba Chuba Ao, told reporters during a media briefing.
The Delhi government's proposed drone policy is likely to focus on creating drone research clusters, establishing dedicated flight testing facilities, enabling the use of drones in traffic management, and providing subsidies to support the drone ecosystem, officials said on Saturday. According to officials, in a recently held meeting, the policy framework was discussed, where plans to rope in the Drone Federation of India (DFI), a leading non- government organisation in this area, were approved. Earlier this year, the government set up a committee under the chairmanship of the IT department secretary to examine the feasibility of the Delhi Drone Policy. "A comprehensive drone policy is being planned to ensure safe and regulated drone operations. Along with this, the government is working on an IT dashboard, a digital monitoring system to provide effective governance," IT minister Pankaj Singh said. According to officials, the policy's key objectives include regulating drone usage t
Airlines will start offering at least 60 per cent of seats in a flight without levying any additional charge from April 20, as well as maintain a transparent seat allocation policy, according to aviation watchdog DGCA. On March 18, the civil aviation ministry announced that directions have been issued to the DGCA to direct airlines to allocate a minimum of 60 per cent of seats for selection on any flight free of charge to ensure fair access for passengers. In this regard, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued the amended Air Transport Circular dated March 20. A DGCA official said the circular would come into effect from April 20. The regulator has said that airlines should ensure at least "60 per cent of the seats in any flight shall be offered free of charge". "Airlines should maintain transparent seat allocation policies and clearly communicate the availability of free seats and applicable conditions on their booking interfaces," as per a revised circular dated
Airlines will be operating lesser number of flights in the current summer schedule as the civil aviation authorities decided to be 'little more moderate" in approving the number of services in the backdrop of IndiGo's massive operational disruptions last December. A highly-placed source said the civil aviation ministry and regulator DGCA do not want a situation similar to what happened at IndiGo in December last year. The summer schedules of the airline have been approved after taking into consideration the availability of aircraft, pilots and other aspects, the source said. In the domestic summer schedule, airlines are set to operate at least 10 per cent less flights compared to the number flights flown during the same period a year ago. Aviation watchdog DGCA has published the domestic flights summer schedule, which is from March 29 to October 24, for nine scheduled airlines. During the 2025 summer schedule, there were 25,610 weekly flights and this time, a 10 per cent reduction
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is trying to promote ease of doing business for airlines to help them grow and flourish as well as taking steps for passenger rights, its chief Faiz Ahmed Kidwai said on Thursday. There are big challenges for airlines, including taking longer routes and higher operational costs due to airspace restrictions, he said, expressing hope that there would be "better days". The ongoing West Asia conflict is posing more challenges for airlines, which have curtailed services to the region. "It is not only passenger rights which we are looking at... we are trying to ease things for the airlines also and the rules and regulations which are there, promote ease of doing business because we want our airlines to grow and flourish," Kidwai said. He said many airlines have gone bust in India and emphasised the need to support carriers. India is one of the world's fastest-growing civil aviation markets and the DGCA as well as the civil aviation minist
Indian airlines are set to operate a little over 23,000 weekly domestic flights during the summer schedule starting from March 29, which is 10 per cent less than the services flown during the same period a year ago. Aviation watchdog DGCA has published the domestic flights summer schedule, which is from March 29 to October 24, for nine scheduled airlines. A senior DGCA official on Thursday told PTI that the airlines would be operating around 10 per cent fewer flights in 2026 summer schedule compared to the previous summer schedule. During the 2025 summer schedule, there were 25,610 weekly flights and this time, a 10 per cent reduction would mean the number of services will come down by 2,561. Accordingly, the total count will be about 23,049 weekly flights, as per an analysis. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has put out the airline-wise domestic summer schedule for 2026 on its website but has not provided a consolidated figure and comparison with the previous summe
Aviation watchdog DGCA has asked Air India to take corrective measures after the airline deployed a wrong aircraft for operating a flight to Vancouver last week, a senior official said on Thursday. Action has also been taken against an airline official for the incident, the senior official at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) told PTI. A Vancouver-bound Air India Boeing 777-200 LR aircraft, after being airborne for over seven hours, returned to Delhi on March 19 after it was found that the plane was not approved for operating the flight. The approval is only for Boeing 777-300 ER to operate that flight. Following the incident, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had sought a report from the airline. Air India has been asked to take corrective measures to ensure that such incidents do not happen again, and action has also been taken against an airline official, the DGCA official said. Specific details could not be ascertained. There was no immediate com
Amid escalating conflict in West Asia, aviation watchdog DGCA on Thursday asked airlines to avoid nine airspaces in the region and ensure robust contingency plans as part of safety risk assessments. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked airlines to avoid the airspaces of Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar and United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to an advisory. Indian airlines can operate flights over Oman and Saudi Arabia airspaces subject to certain conditions, the regulator said. It told the airlines not to operate below FL 320 or 32,000 feet within the airspace of Saudi Arabia and Oman located south of the segments defined by following compulsory reporting points. About the nine airspaces, the DGCA asked airlines to "refrain from operating within the affected airspace...at all flight levels and altitudes". Any continued operations would be at the discretion of the operator based on their safety risk assessment, it added. "Operati