Civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday asked airline companies to provide an indicative timeline to implement the revised flight duty rules for pilots. The aviation sector regulator had in March postponed the implementation of flight duty time limit (FDTL) norms as airline companies were seeking more time to implement them. According to Bhasha news, four cases related to FDTL norms came up for hearing before the Delhi High Court this month.
Time given till 8th May
The court has asked the DGCA to give a possible date for implementing the revised norms in the next hearing on May 8. Keeping this in mind, the monitoring body has asked the airline companies to indicate the required timeline for implementation of the revised norms. These norms were initially scheduled to come into effect from June 1. These norms provide for more rest time for pilots in an effort to reduce fatigue.
Rest time will increase to 48 hours
In these, the weekly rest time for pilots will increase to 48 hours and the number of night landings will be limited to two. Additionally, night time for pilots will be extended from midnight to 6 a.m., whereas earlier it was midnight to 5 a.m. This will limit the working hours of pilots in the cockpit at night. The government had said in February that it wanted to limit the number of flights made by a pilot.
According to the new rules, the maximum flight duty period for pilots flying at night has been reduced from 13 to 10 hours. Besides, the definition of night has also been amended, which now includes 12 midnight to 6 am instead of 12 midnight to 5 am under the previous rules.
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