DGCA proposes flight duty hour restriction for cabin crew

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday proposed a new set of regulations for the cabin crew flight duty time limitation (FDTL).

This comes after the Delhi high court in April directed the DGCA to prescribe specific flight duty timings, which should be followed while scheduling flights and its crew member, without deviations.

The regulator said the operator shall not require a cabin crew member to perform cabin crew duties on a flight if it is known or suspected that the person is tired to the extent that the safety of the flight may be adversely affected.

“The ultra long haul (ULR) operator should ensure that cabin crew members are notified prior to commencement of the rest period preceding the flight, of the role they are required to undertake, so that they can plan their pre-flight rest accordingly,” the draft stated. 

It has also directed airlines to include ‘standby’ crew as a part of the cabin crew’s roster, for which the concerned persons should be kept notified.

According to the draft, cabin crew members should have maximum 22 hours of duty in order to operate an ULR flight or the one which has an operating duration of over 16 hours or more.

Concerned about the minimum rest period, the regulator stated that the airline must provide sufficient rest to the crew before undertaking a flight duty period.

The proposed rules also clarify that the period of transportation of the crew to and from an airport will neither be counted towards duty time nor rest period.

On Tuesday, the main runway at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) was temporarily shut to clear the area of rubber particles after the tyre of a non-scheduled CL 30 aircraft burst while attempting to take off for Jammu.

While Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials said the runway was shut only for 10 minutes, an airline official claimed the disabled private aircraft led to runway closure for an hour, causing diversions owing to ATC congestion.

Jet Airways flights from Kuwait and Delhi had to be diverted to Ahmedabad and Vadodara respectively as they were low on fuel and a Jet Airways Mumbai- Goa flight had to cancel take off.

An Iran Air aircraft was put on hold and asked to perform a go-around. The airport also faced further delays due to the high number of non-scheduled movements and VVIP flights to and from the city.