DGCA implements Draconian rule of 1 year notice period for commanding pilots

MUMBAI: India's aviation regulator has said commanding pilots must serve a year’s notice period or risk losing their flying license, foretelling further opposition from the country’s experienced aviation crew that had contested the ruling at its drafting phase.

"It has been observed that pilots are resigning without providing any notice to the airlines. In some cases, even groups of pilots resign together without notice and as a result airlines are forced to cancel their flights at the last minute. Such resignations…cause inconvenience and harassment to the passengers,” said the regulator’s Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) that was implemented on Wednesday.

It likened the cases of co-ordinated resignations to “tantamount to holding the airline to ransom,” and said the “highly undesirable practice and goes against the public interest." It cited public interest in allowing the government to “debar a person permanently or temporarily from holding any licence.”

Under the new ruling, commanders will need to serve a notice period of one year and co-pilots of six months.

A senior pilot at an airline called the rule "draconian" and said it's ironic that it is implemented a day after the country celebrated its 71stIndependence Day.
The rule was opposed in its draft stages. Almost all of the 300 respondents had opposed it when the regulator had put it up for feedback.

The International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations ( IFALPA), a global lobbying body for the crew, had criticised the proposal.

The Canada-based IFALPA represents more than 100,000 pilots across the world.