Maximum flight time in night restricted to 8 hours,says DGCA in amended flight duty regulations

New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has made significant changes in the regulations pertaining to Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) for flight crew, in line with the international best practices, said an official on Monday.

These regulations have been instrumental in managing fatigue-related aviation safety risks for more than a decade now.

“With a view to address and mitigate concerns on pilot fatigue through a data driven approach, the DGCA collected and analysed extensive numbers of pilot rosters along with pilot fatigue reports submitted by airline operators," Director General, Civil Aviation, Vikram Dev Dutt said.

Based on the study and analysis, some of the key areas inducing fatigue such as maximum flight duty period, night duty, weekly rest period, flight duty period extension etc. were identified.

"The revised FDTL regulations have been formulated after extensive data analysis and feedback from various stakeholders which includes airline operators, pilot associations and individuals. The world-wide best practices (FAA – USA and EASA – EU) have also been taken into consideration in amending the regulations while keeping in mind the specific operating environment in India," said Dutt.

According to DGCA, the revised regulations mandate increased weekly rest periods from 36 hours to 48 hours for flight crew, thus ensuring sufficient time for recovery from cumulative fatigue.

"The definition of night has been amended which now covers the period of 00:00-6:00 hours in the revised regulations vis-a-vis the period of 00:00-5:00 hours under the previous regulations," the DGCA chief said.

This enhancement of one hour during early morning will ensure adequate rest and also align the night duty period which encompasses Window of Circadian Low (WOCL) from 2:00-6:00 hours i.e. the time during which the circadian body clock cycle is at its lowest in terms of alertness.

"The revised regulations have taken into consideration different types of operations across time zones. The maximum flight time and maximum flight duty period for flight operations encroaching night have been restricted to 8 hours flight time and 10 hours flight duty period, respectively, and the number of landings have been limited to only two as compared to maximum permissible six landings under previous regulations during night operations, thus enhancing flight safety," Dutt said.

In addition, the DGCA has mandated that all airline operators shall submit quarterly fatigue reports after analysis including the action taken on such reports.

"Further, it has been stipulated that the fatigue reports shall follow a non-punitive and confidentiality policy," he said.

The DGCA chief also said that the introduction of these reforms in the civil aviation sector would be a substantial step forward in addressing pilot fatigue, enhancing overall flight safety, and balancing it with the projected growth of the aviation sector in India.

"The revised FDTL regulations are effective forthwith and the airline operators are required to comply with the revised regulations latest by June 1, 2024. This will ensure sufficient time for the airline operators to adapt to the changes while taking into account the logistics, system changes and consequential arrangements arising out of the amendments in revised FDTL regulations," he added.