India raises rest period for flight crew among measures to avoid fatigue (updated)

Spicejet

08/01/2024 11:04

(Adds details paragraph 2 onwards)
       BENGALURU, Jan 8 (Reuters) - India's aviation regulator
has increased the mandatory weekly rest period for flight crew
to 48 hours from the previous 36 hours, the civil aviation
ministry said on Monday, as it laid out a host of measures to
address complaints of pilot fatigue.
    The revised regulations come months after the watchdog
decided to conduct a review of pilot fatigue data collected
during spot checks and surveillance of airlines after an IndiGo
 INGL.NS  pilot collapsed and died in August before his flight.
    The regulator also cut the maximum flight duty period to 10
hours from 13 hours for pilots working nights and limited the
number of flight landings to two, from six, during night
operations.
    The Directorate General of Civil Aviation's (DGCA) revised
regulations, which considered practices in the United States and
the European Union, also amended the definition of night duty to
cover the first six hours of the day, from five earlier.
    The DGCA will mandate all airline operators to submit
quarterly fatigue reports and comply with the revised
regulations by June 1, 2024.

 (Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank
Dhaniwala and Savio D'Souza)
 ((Kashish.Tandon@thomsonreuters.com;))