HC strikes down stretched duty hours for pilots
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday struck down a law, which allowed commercial airline operators to change stipulated working hours for pilots. The ruling is likely to have wide ramifications, and may require airlines to change the work pattern for pilots.
The ruling came after a petition filed by a Kerala-based lawyer Yeshwanth Shenoy alleged that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA’s) law regarding flight duty time limitations violated rules, since it allowed airline companies to stretch the duty hours of pilots.
“The court has asked the DGCA to redesign the rules regarding pilots’ flight duty time and rest requirement, and has given a one-year time for doing that. In the interim, the court has asked the DGCA to strictly implement existing rules minus the allowance of variations, which allowed airlines to fix the norms according to their need,” Shenoy said.
Business Standard has not seen the court order since it was not uploaded on the court website till the time of going to press. Flight duty time limitations, which lay down rest period for pilots in detail, were implemented by the DGCA in 2011 after the pilot’s fatigue was found to be the reason behind the crash of an Air India Express, which led to the death of 158 passengers. This led to a detailed study by a government committee headed by former DGCA Naseem Zaidi. The committee recommended that flight crew should have 36 hours rest, free from all duties. “Sleep and fatigue science has unequivocally established the role of adequate rest in mitigating fatigue,” the committee had said.
The DGCA followed it up with guidelines that mandated strict rest period. For instance, a pilot flying between three and seven time zones during a long-haul flight should have a minimum 36 hours of rest between flights. It also barred consecutive night operations between 12 amand 5 am. However, the rules faced resistance from airlines, who said these would lead to commercial loss. The DGCA inserted a clause that allowed variations to these rules on the basis of risk assessment provided by airlines. Jet Airways, Air India soon followed with their own rules. The airlines said 20 hours of rest was enough after a pilot flew between three and seven time zones against 36 hours laid down by the DGCA. IndiGo mandated that 144 hours per week was sufficient, but this was less than the DGCA mandated 168 hours.
“Flight duty working hours are based on scientific studies, but on what basis the airlines came up with their own working hours is unknown,” said Sam Thomas, president, Airline Pilots Association of India, which has over 1,000 pilots as members.
Jet, Air India and IndiGo did not respond to queries.