NEW DELHI: As IndiGo’s exemption from the new safety-enhancing flight duty rules for A320 fleet pilots expires Feb 10, the airline must tell DGCA this week, likely Monday, whether it can still run more than 2,000 flights a day under the new rules that increase pilot requirement, reports Saurabh Sinha. If it cannot, authorities are expected to step in and cut flights in time to avert a repeat of last December’s chaos, for which the DGCA fined the airline Rs 22.2cr, an amount pilots’ body has dismissed as “peanuts”, saying the regulator counted only three days of disruption when the turmoil lasted far longer.IndiGo chaos lasted beyond 3 days DGCA probed: Pilots bodyRegular meetings are being held with IndiGo to get a status on their preparedness for once the flight duty time limitation (FDTL) exemption ends on Feb 10. They have informed us about their pilot hiring plans. The airline has been doing dry runs with its scheduling software by matching available pilot strength with number of flights to be operated. On Monday they are expected to share their post Feb 10 preparedness,” said people in the know.It is learnt that from Feb 1 IndiGo will plan its crew rosters as per new FDTL rules and without factoring in the current exemption that will end later that month. IndiGo flights have been reduced till the end of winter schedule (which ends on last Saturday in March) and the airline plans to serve its entire network with these cuts under the new FDTL rules. It is learnt IndiGo may not seek any further exemptions.The aviation ministry and the DGCA are keeping a very close watch on the situation. “We can’t and won’t allow a repeat of what happened last Dec,” said sources.The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has termed the DGCA’s Rs 22.2cr fine on IndiGo as “peanuts” and questioned some aspects of its report. FIP president Captain CS Randhawa said: “The DGCA probe takes cognisance of IndiGo flight disruptions only on three days — Dec 3, 4 & 5. In reality, the disruptions lasted much longer till about mid Dec and the scale was much higher.”Captain Randhawa questioned the lack of action. “Issuing a warning letter after a massive disruption of this scale is a joke, like the fine amount. Also with IndiGo flights cut, why hasn’t the FDTL exemption been revoked? The DGCA is levying a fine of Rs 30 lakh for each day of non-compliance of the new flight duty rules. Does it mean that non-compliance of the law can be traded with a penalty?” Captain Randhawa said.IndiGo said on Saturday that it is “committed to taking full cognisance of the orders and will, in a thoughtful and timely manner, take appropriate measures… an in-depth review of the robustness and resilience of the internal processes at IndiGo (is) underway to ensure that the airline emerges stronger out of these events in its otherwise pristine record of 19 plus years of operations..”
