IndiGo was the primary provider to oppose the brand new FDTL norms for pilots after they have been launched in January 2024, with a March implementation timeline.
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FRANCIS MASCARENHAS
Home provider IndiGo has cancelled over 200 flights from Delhi and Mumbai on Saturday, a day after managing to briefly safe main relaxations within the second section of the court-mandated new flight obligation and relaxation interval norms for cockpit crew, sources stated.
Of those cancelled flights, 109 IndiGo flights have been cancelled at Mumbai airport, 51 arrivals and 58 departures, and 106 flights at Delhi airport, which included 54 departures and 52 arrivals, they stated.
On Friday, when IndiGo cancelled over 1,000 flights from throughout airports, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers, after sustaining a stoic silence over the grave disaster for 3 days, apologised in a video message for the most important inconvenience brought on to passengers because of the disruptions.
Within the one-way video communication, Elbers additionally stated that the airline was anticipating fewer than 1,000 flights on Saturday.
It might be talked about right here that on Friday, DGCA offered short-term aid to IndiGo, which is partially owned by Rahul Bhatia, by the use of rolling again the night time obligation definition to 12 am-5 am from 12 am-6 am earlier, and permitting its pilots to do six night-landings from two earlier, apart from different relaxations.
In the meantime, the pilots’ physique, Airways’ Pilots Affiliation (ALPA) India, has taken a “robust” objection to the DGCA’s “selective and unsafe” aid to IndiGo, saying that the relaxations haven’t simply “destroyed regulatory parity but in addition positioned thousands and thousands of passengers at “heightened danger”.
Following the assembly convened by the Ministry of Civil Aviation with ALPA India and different pilot associations on December 5, the Ministry introduced that it has determined to put the implementation of the revised FDTL CAR in abeyance.
“ALPA India expresses its deep concern that this step instantly contradicts the Courtroom’s instructions, which mandate the enforcement of fatigue-mitigation requirements rooted in aviation science,” the Affiliation stated in a press release late Friday.
It said that protecting the FDTL in abeyance not solely undermines judicial authority but in addition heightens the danger to pilots and passengers by delaying important fatigue protections.
“We urge the (Civil Aviation) Ministry and the regulator to uphold the Courtroom’s order in each letter and spirit and to prioritise the protection of the pilots and travelling public above all industrial issues,” ALPA India stated.
It’s price noting that IndiGo was the primary provider to oppose the brand new FDTL norms for pilots after they have been launched in January 2024, with a March implementation timeline.
It had been argued that the airways require extra time to place in place resulting from extra crew necessities. The newest FDTL norms, which entail elevated weekly relaxation durations to 48 hours, prolonged night time hours, and limiting the variety of night time landings to solely two, as in opposition to six earlier, have been initially additionally opposed by home airways, together with IndiGo and Tata Group-owned Air India.
However they have been subsequently rolled out by the DGCA following the Delhi Excessive Courtroom’s directives, albeit with a delay of over one yr, in a phased method, and with sure variations for airways like IndiGo and Air India.
Whereas the primary section of those FDTL norms got here into power in July, the second section, which lowered the variety of night time landings from six to 2 earlier, was carried out from November 1.
The norms have been initially to be put in place in March 2024.
Printed on December 6, 2025
