Longer flight paths push DGCA to ease pilot duty rules temporarily

Airlines grappling with longer, more circuitous routes have been handed temporary operational breathing room, with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation easing pilot flight duty time limitations to stave off an acute crew crunch and keep schedules intact.

The latest move by the aviation watchdog is aimed at ensuring pilot availability for smooth operations, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Asangba Chuba Ao, told reporters during a media briefing. The escalating conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran that started on February 28 has caused major airspace curbs in the Middle East region and has significantly impacted flight operations.

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In December 2025, India's largest airline, IndiGo, faced massive operational disruptions that resulted in hundreds of flight cancellations and impacted thousands of passengers. The aviation watchdog had also taken various regulatory actions against the airline.

In order to deal with pilot fatigue, DGCA introduced new norms last year that reduce the amount of time pilots can fly in a week. As per the new rules, pilots must be given 48 hours of consecutive rest, up from the earlier norm of 36 hours.

Union minister Murlidhar Mohol said in a reply to the Rajya Sabha that the primary causes for the IndiGo disruption were over-optimisation of operations, inadequate regulatory preparedness along with deficiencies in system software support and shortcomings in management structure and operational control on the part of the airline.

The DGCA had given certain relaxations in pilot Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms till April 30, the sources told PTI earlier. Providing the relaxations for the long-haul flights operated with two pilots, the sources said, adding that DGCA has extended the Flight Time (FT) by 1.30 hours to 11.30 hours and the Flight Duty Period (FDP) by 1.45 hours to 11.45 hours.

FT is the total time from the moment an aeroplane first moves for the purpose of taking off until the moment it finally comes to rest at the end of the flight.

"DGCA has introduced more robust measures to ensure compliance by airlines with regulations which include -- increased monitoring on weekly and fortnightly basis for critical operations along with bi-monthly visits to the operator by DGCA's principal point-of contact inspector, to closely monitor the airline's operations, with particular emphasis on roster integrity, crew availability, buffer adequacy, system robustness and adherence to FDTL requirements," Mohol said in a written reply.

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What happened at IndiGo

India's largest airline IndiGo was grappling to cope with new pilot rest and duty-hour norms, even a month after their implementation. The crisis exposed the airline’s unpreparedness to deal with the new rules during peak travel season.

The norms, implemented by the aviation watchdog, from November 1, capped the number of landings a pilot can perform between 12 am and 6 am while increasing weekly rest requirements. Though IndiGo and other airlines lobbied intensely to postpone the rules, the regulator enforced them with only limited relaxations.

As per an ET report by Arindam Majumder, people involved in the airline’s operations blamed poor planning as the reason behind the widespread flight disruptions.

The airline assumed DGCA would grant more time to implement the rules, and hence neither hired adequately nor accelerated training, leaving pilots stretched thin through frequent reassignments, longer workdays and extended deadheading where they travel as passengers to operate flights at another location, people aware of the matter told ET.