The Airline Pilots' Association of India (ALPA India) has urged the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) not to relax Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms, warning that repeated relaxations to airlines have weakened fatigue safeguards and could compromise flight safety.
In a letter dated May 1, the pilots' body said repeated exemptions granted to airlines have effectively become the norm, allowing rostering at or near regulatory limits without adequate safety buffers.
This comes two days after two pilots died of heart attacks. An Air India pilot on Wednesday died in Bali during scheduled rest, while the Akasa Air pilot passed away during training in Bengaluru.
ALPA said in the letter, "These variations, originally conceived as transitional measures, have effectively become the norm. This defeats the purpose of fatigue management framework and perpetuates scheduling practices that operate at or near regulatory limits without adequate safety buffers."
The pilots' body also flagged concerns over reduced weekly rest, low acceptance of fatigue reports, and the absence of transparent data on pilot health and safety indicators.
ALPA requested that airlines be mandated to submit quarterly fatigue report data in a standardised format and that such data be placed in the public domain through routine publication on the DGCA website.
The association said that any reconsideration or dilution of the approved FDTL framework at this stage "would be difficult to justify" and that the safety of human life must remain paramount and non-negotiable in all aviation operations.
