India’s aviation regulator on Friday withdrew, with immediate effect, one part of its new Flight Duty Time Limitations rules – which said ‘no leave shall be substituted for weekly rest’ – in an attempt to resolve the operational crisis that has affected IndiGo, the country’s largest airline.
In a statement this afternoon, the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation said, “… in view of the ongoing operational disruptions and representatives from various airlines regarding need to ensure stability of operations, it has been considered necessary to review the said provision”.
Today’s revision to the FDTL norms mean airlines do not have to differentiate between leave and weekly rest when rostering pilots and flight crew. Therefore, a pilot granted leave for 48 hours, for example, will now be considered as having also been rested, as mandated by the new rules.
This is the second adjustment the DGCA has made to its FDTL norms in less than 24 hours; last night the cap on the number of consecutive hours a pilot can fly was extended from 12 to 14.
IndiGo’s flight ops – the largest in India with over 2,200 daily domestic and international services – have been decimated over the past four days because of a shortage of pilots.
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As many as 550 flights were cancelled on Thursday alone – the most ever by IndiGo, an airline that prides itself on its punctuality, in a single day – across multiple airports, including Delhi.
IndiGo admitted Wednesday it had misjudged the number of pilots needed under new FDTL rules, which also mandate increased rest periods – from 36 to 48 hours in a seven-day period.
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The scale of that misjudgement was underlined this morning after Delhi airport cancelled all outbound IndiGo flight till midnight. However, almost simultaneously, DGCA sources told NDTV that flights had only been cancelled till 3 pm, further emphasising the chaos all around.