India's DGCA grants Air India temporary pilot duty relaxations
Change
India's DGCA extended Flight Time by 1 hour 30 minutes to 11 hours 30 minutes and Flight Duty Period by 1 hour 45 minutes to 11 hours 45 minutes for Air India's two‑pilot long‑haul flights, and waived the 30‑minute roster‑planning buffer until April 30.
Why it matters
The change creates a binding upper limit on how long individual crew members may be legally scheduled on affected long‑haul sectors, reducing roster flexibility for Air India's planners. Because the permission is temporary, operations teams must rework routings and crew relief plans before the relief lapses.
Implications
- — Air India's crew rostering teams must reconfigure long‑haul rosters so no pilot is scheduled beyond the regulator's permitted duty ceilings — failure to comply will produce regulatory breaches for affected flights.
- — Air India's flight dispatch and operations planners must schedule technical stops, add relief crew, or shorten sectors on Europe and North America routes to keep crew duty within permitted limits — otherwise those flights will need to be cancelled or rerouted.
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Source
View on Economic Times