New Delhi, April 7 (IANS) The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has temporarily allowed airlines to extend flight duty time for pilots on long-haul flights as planes have to take longer routes on international flights due to the Iran war, a senior official of the Civil Aviation Ministry said on Tuesday.

The easing of the pilot flight duty time limitation (FDTL) norm has been permitted as airlines were facing problems due to the longer flying hours that are now required for flights, as the Middle East countries have shut airspace, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Asangba Chuba Ao told journalists.

DGCA introduced new flight duty norms last year to put a limit on the flying time for pilots in order to prevent fatigue, which poses a risk to flight safety. According to the new rules, pilots must be given 48 hours of continuous rest, which was an increase from the 36 hours fixed in the earlier norms.

However, due to the Iran war, the flight time to western destinations has been extended on account of long detours that aircraft are forced to take to avoid the Middle East conflict zone. This poses problems for the airlines to function with the limit imposed on flight duty time for pilots.

The DGCA had given certain relaxations in pilot flight duty time limitations (FDTL) norms earlier, till April 30. Providing the relaxations for the long-haul flights operated with two pilots, the 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.

Flying time covers the total time taken from the moment an aircraft first moves for the purpose of taking off from the runway until the moment it finally comes to a halt at the end of the flight.

DGCA had introduced more robust measures to ensure compliance by airlines with regulations, which include increased monitoring on a weekly and fortnightly basis for critical operations, along with bi-monthly visits to the operator by DGCA’s principal point-of-contact inspector.

The civil aviation regulator is also more closely monitoring operations of airlines, with particular emphasis on roster integrity, crew availability, buffer adequacy, system robustness and adherence to FDTL requirements.

–IANS

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