DGCA imposes ~80L fine on Air India

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday imposed a fine of ~80 lakh on Air India for violating rules regarding flight duty time limitation (FDTL), which aims to ensure sufficient rest for pilots.

The regulator said on Friday that it had conducted an audit of Air India in January to see if the airline is complying with regulations related to FDTL and fatigue management system (FMS). The regulator collected a substantial amount of evidence and analysed random fleet-wise reports.

“The analysis of reports and evidence revealed that Air India operated flight(s) with both flight crew aged above 60 years flying together in a few instances, which is a violation of Sub Rule (2) of Rule 28 A of the Aircraft

Rules, 1937,” the regulator stated. According to Sub Rule (2), only one of the two pilots in a flight can be more than 60 years of age.

The DGCA noted, “The operator was also found deficient in providing adequate weekly rest, adequate rest before and after ultra-long range (ULR) flights and adequate rest on layover to flight crew, which violates the extant provisions of the civil aviation requirements (CARS) pertaining to FDTL. “Moreover, the instances of exceeding duty periods, wrongly marked training records, overlapping duties etc. were also observed during the audit,” it added.

After all this, the regulator had on March 1 issued a showcause notice to the airline. “Pursuant to the non-satisfactory response submitted by the operator, a fine of ~80 lakh has been imposed on the operator,” it added.

The airline was charged for violating rules regarding flight duty time limitation