New Delhi: “The glory and glamour of the job is gone…The salaries have been stagnant for 15-20 years. We’re always battling cumulative fatigue… What airlines need to understand is that pilots will die,” a Delhi-based senior pilot says about their current predicament.
Flying hours have increased over the past few years thanks to a growing network of flights and destinations, coupled with shortage of pilots, who say that, more often than not, they work for maximum permissible hours with erratic schedules, limited physical and mental rest amid uncertainty and malpractices in rostering.
The plight of pilots is again in focus as the Delhi High Court has asked India’s aviation regulator—the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)—to work with all stakeholders to come up with a timeline for new rules aimed at easing the fatigue and stress felt by pilots.
Their work timings and rest periods are governed by FDTL, or Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms. The current FDTL norms being followed were implemented in 2019, following which, several pilots’ associations had filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court against these norms.
In January this year, the DGCA issued a new set of norms that included longer mandatory rest periods and reducing night-flying time—a move welcomed by the pilots as a step in the right direction. These were to be implemented from 1 June onwards.
The regulator in March had also declined to give airlines more time to implement these revised norms, and admitted for the first time that the unfortunate instances of pilot deaths in the recent past were “ostensibly” due to punishing rosters and consequent cumulative impact on their health and well-being. It had added that this was an “urgent wake-up call” for the industry. Ahead of the introduction of the new draft rules, there were reports of at least three pilots dying while on duty.
However, in a move that surprised many, later that month, the DGCA deferred the planned implementation of the new FDTL in line with directions issued to it by the Ministry of Civil Aviation amid opposition by the airlines to the new rules. The regulator in April wrote to airlines asking them to give a convenient timeline for the implementation of the new FDTL rules.
While the issue has not seen much progress since, the Delhi HC in a hearing this month instructed the DGCA to convene a meeting with all stakeholders to discuss a timeline for the implementation. The DGCA informed the Delhi HC that the new regulations would be notified in phases by July 2025.
ThePrint reached the DGCA via email. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
In a similar meeting on the issue in November, held as part of the mediation process, Air India raised objections to the new FDTL implementation. The airline argued that immediate enforcement would result in flight cancellations due to insufficient crew, higher airfares driven by increased operational costs, and a potential reduction in flying hours, which could lead to lower pilot salaries.
“The FDTL lays out the maximum duty limit…but that doesn’t mean that you push us to that limit,” a 45-year pilot currently working with an Indian low-cost carrier (LCC), said. “These maximum limitations (of 13 hours duty) should come into play only in some instances. However, most of the operators are pushing into that limit because of pilot shortages. It’s inhumane.”
The erratic duty schedules, he added, are fine once in a while too, but in the long run, such schedules affect one’s physical as well as mental health.
“We are constantly battling something called ‘cumulative fatigue’, which builds up over the years and causes major health issues. You must have heard about young pilots dying of heart attacks over the past 2-3 years. Take tonight, for instance. Tonight, I am flying at 10 pm and I land back in the morning at 6 am or 7 am. I will reach home at around, say, 8 am, and sleep by 9 am,” the pilot explained.
“I need at least 7-8 hours of sleep. So, I wake up in the evening around 5 pm. What the airline will do now is put my reporting time as 4.30-5 am, which means I will have to wake up at 2.30 am. So, I woke up at 4.30 pm today, and I need to go back to sleep in four hours to get some decent hours of sleep. But that is not possible. So, we go without sleep… they violate the natural way of living,” he added.
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Pilots’ complaints
The issue of pilot shortages made headlines earlier this year when Vistara faced multiple cancellations due to a lack of crew. Meanwhile, two trade unions of Air India—the Indian Pilots Guild (representing Boeing pilots) and the Indian Commercial Pilots Guild (representing Airbus pilots)—wrote to Tata Sons chairperson N. Chandrasekaran. In their letters, they argued that the concerns raised by Vistara pilots regarding remuneration and work-life balance were not isolated incidents but reflected broader systemic issues within Tata Group’s aviation entities. They claimed pilots were enduring conditions and treatment that felt “reminiscent of bonded labour”. In response to the disruption at Vistara, then-CEO Vinod Kannan had acknowledged the challenges of extended working hours and assured pilots that the company would adjust its rostering system to make it more manageable.
Speaking to ThePrint for a report published earlier this year, industry experts had said that the workforce shortage in the case of pilots is especially much higher as recruiting pilots takes much longer given the limited supply, and training them also takes time and incurs high cost. Manpower is a huge cost for the airlines, accounting for nearly 40 percent of their operating costs. There is an estimated 12-15 percent shortfall of trained and certified pilots.
India is now the third-largest domestic aviation market in the world, after the US and China, and crossed a milestone on 17 November, this year, carrying over 5 lakh domestic passengers in a single day.
The aircraft movement across various airports in the country has also grown, with October 2024 seeing movement of over 2.46 lakh aircraft (domestic and international), an increase of 8 percent from about 2.28 lakh aircraft movements in October 2023, and a growth of 17 percent from 2.10 lakh aircraft movements in October 2022.
Currently, major Indian airlines employ a total of 11,775 pilots, Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Cooperation Murlidhar Mohol informed Parliament in the ongoing session. This number stood at about 10,000 in March 2023, and 9,000 in June 2022, according to government data. As per industry projections made last year, India is likely to require 1,000 pilots every year over the next five years.
Replying to a query, Mohol in August 2024 informed Lok Sabha that there is no shortage of pilots in India. “However, there is a shortage of commanders on certain types of aircraft and the same is being managed by utilising foreign pilots by issuing Foreign Aircrew Temporary Authorisation (FATA),” he said.
This month, a section of Akasa Air pilots, approached the Ministry of Civil Aviation alleging mismanagement and compromised safety standards, and seeking an independent investigation of the government. However, the airline has denied the allegations.
The pilots have reportedly senior airline officials, mainly examiners and instructors, subjected them to harassment and humiliation during training sessions, and were biased in assessments and unprofessional in conduct. The group of pilots has claimed that 84 pilots resigned on one day’s notice.
In a statement, the airline termed these allegations as “baseless and untrue. Nor do they represent the views of Akasa pilots”.
“…Our monthly employee survey reveals that pilots, amongst all employee groups, have consistently reported the highest levels of job satisfaction, highlighting the effectiveness of our supportive culture,” it said, adding that 324 pilots have joined Akasa since October 2023. During this same period, the airline recorded an annualised attrition of less than 1 percent for this employee group, it added.
In September last year, market leader IndiGo had announced plans to leverage technology and introduce a wrist gadget as well as a ground device to detect fatigue among pilots and check their level of alertness before and after flying an aircraft. It had then partnered with French conglomerate Thales Group to work on the Fatigue Analysis Tool that would enable the airlines to collect and process data from pilots to prepare flight patterns and rosters aimed at reducing pilot fatigue.
“The programme will use real-time data, historical information, and predictive analytics, with all data collected being de-identified. We remain committed to our pilots’ well-being, ensuring their health and mental well-being, ultimately enhancing passenger safety,” it had said in a statement.
Likewise, amid concerns raised by pilots over introduction of a new policy at Air India that could discourage self-reporting of fatigue, the airline had in September this year defended the move, stating that the system would ensure the integrity of fatigue reporting, and is aligned with global best practices.
“Our new fatigue protocol is a positive step in preventing fatigue and is followed by leading airlines globally. It is compliant with the regulations and is non-punitive. We will continue to use scientific tools such as Jeppesen and Boeing Alertness Model to protect our crew from potentially fatiguing rosters,” an Air India spokesperson had then told The Economic Times.
ThePrint reached out to The Federation of Indian Airlines, the industry body of scheduled carriers in India, via text messages and calls. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
Stress and fatigue lead to safety risks
A survey conducted in July by the NGO Safety Matters Foundation highlighted that extended duty periods, consecutive night flights, and inadequate workplace support are significant contributors to pilot fatigue, leading to decreased performance and increased safety risks.
“Many pilots report that current rest periods and roster management practices are insufficient to mitigate fatigue effectively. The instability of rosters and the prevalence of minimum rest periods fail to provide adequate recovery time, leading to chronic fatigue,” it noted. The survey collected responses from 530 pilots between 16 and 22 July, 2024.
Another pilot ThePrint spoke to noted that while FDTL norms have undergone some modifications over the years, they have largely favoured operators, who have deep pockets.
“Earlier, flying was not so intense. For example, in 2005, there were no departures between midnight and 5 am. Now, it is all chaos. Airlines now also use softwares to draw up rosters that don’t see you as humans. To it, you are just a number that needs to be optimised for the company’s best interest,” the pilot said.
He added, “Earlier, the rostering staff knew that I like to do early mornings, and there is another friend who prefers late night flights. So, they kept that in mind. They would say, we’ll plan, you don’t worry about it. Those things no longer happen. So that personal touch is gone.”
Moreover, he added, pilot salaries have not gone up in the past 15-20 years.
“It is pretty much stagnant in India. In fact, when I was a first officer 20 years ago, the salaries were either exactly the same or even more than now.”
Pilot salaries vary based on grade and experience. When a first officer joins, they typically receive around Rs 1.5-1.8 lakh per month in hand, with earnings increasing based on flying hours. The pilot also mentioned that many have started side businesses to create a fallback option, enabling them to leave the profession when desired.
‘Financial slavery’
Another pilot added that they do not have much choice but to continue working with airlines, whatever the work conditions, because they are “financial slaves”.
“Becoming a pilot is a costly pursuit,” he explained, adding that in order to get a commercial pilot license (CPL), one needs to spend around Rs 40-50 lakh. Another Rs 20-30 lakh is spent on getting type-rating, a certification that allows pilots to operate certain types of aircraft.
“Further, when you join an airline, you have to undergo training there, for which the airlines charge in lakhs, which is not legal. If you hire a trained person, and want to train them further, the organisation should spend money. But companies are monetising this,” he said.
“This is kind of breaking the bone of a young cadet pilot who is entering into the system. He is already loaded with loans…. We are all from the middle class or upper middle class. So, either we take a loan or put in all our savings. A pilot has a liability of about Rs 1 crore at the start of his career, and the repercussion of that is financial slavery. The pilot will say, I need this job and will do it. Hence, people are also not very vocal on the policies being implemented,” the pilot added.
Another senior pilot, who has worked with Vistara in the past, spoke of the malpractices in rostering.
“At the time Jet Airways was operational, we used to have planned rosters for a month. And it would not change. You could plan your life and schedule. Now that is not the case. There are rosters only in name. They keep changing, especially because of pilot shortage, and airlines just need to give you a 12-hour notice. So, you are never at ease,” the pilot said.
They also do not have fixed weekly offs. Their rest hours calculations are a bit complex, but largely they get 36 hours of mandatory rest after about 168 hours of work week, and these 36 hours must include two local nights. The new FDTL seeks to increase this 36-hour rest period to 48 hours.
The ex-Vistara pilot said that the airline was so understaffed that at one point pilots were flying with bare minimum rest of about 15 hours.
“For Vistara, the local night was from 0000 hours to 0800 hours. So, before my weekly off, my roster will be such that I would land around 10.30 pm so that adding the buffer of 15 minutes for post flight duty time and 45 minutes of travel time, the flight duty time does not cross 12 am. So, I landed today, and my first local night off starts, tomorrow is my first day off and then is my second night. Then the next day, I am eligible to fly as soon as 36 hours are over, so I can be called at any time.”
He added that these calculations are a bit complicated and, in addition to flying, pilots need to keep a track of their FDTL as well, because in case of violations, they are also held liable.
“You sometimes fly three sectors. Your duty times are 10-11 hours, but actual flying time may be just around 4-4.30 hours, which is tiring because you are out and about… spending time at airports etc between flights. Flying is not the problem. When you are flying you are in a different zone… but this is maximum duty and minimum flying,” he said.
Another point that the pilots highlighted is that through the week they are generally flying multiple sectors, but often end up spending their rest periods in another city, returning to their home base only for their weekly off.
“A lot of time after flying, I will not be coming back to my home in Delhi. I will be flying out of different cities and getting 14-16 hours of rest in some other city. Largely you are brought home before weekly offs… it just feels like a layover at your home. So, there is no comparison with corporate jobs. They go back to their homes daily, get Saturday-Sunday off, and get normal holidays. Pilots are not getting time at home with their families. It just adds to mental and psychological pressure,” the pilot said.
He added that the situation is even more challenging for those whose families live away from their home base. For instance, a pilot based in Delhi but with family in Amritsar or Jaipur has to squeeze in visits within a 36-hour window.
“Things were not always like this. Now things have become bad because airlines don’t want to hire people. Flying is there world over, but there is a certain thing known as aircraft to flying ratio…The DGCA clears the summer and winter schedule of airlines, that they want to fly so many flights/aircrafts. I am not aware if DGCA asks operators how many pilots you have for these aircrafts/flights,” the pilot said.
Highlighting the issue with rostering, the pilot added that it changes almost every day. “Suppose, I am out with family or a friend this evening thinking that I have a flight tomorrow at 10 pm. Suddenly, I will get a message that we are giving you 12-hour notice, you need to now fly out at 1 pm…. These sudden changes affect you mentally. You cannot plan anything. There is no mental peace. This no one is talking about. The only reason you get is operational requirement. But this is happening because they are understaffed.”
All pilots agreed that the new FDTL is a step in the right direction and will give immediate relief by increasing rest periods to 48 hours. The revised guidelines also amend the definition of night duty from midnight to 6 am, as against midnight to 5 am under the previous regulations. “This one-hour extension during the early morning will ensure adequate rest while also aligning the night duty period with the Window of Circadian Low (WOCL), from 2 am to 6 am—the time when the circadian body clock is at its lowest level of alertness,” the DGCA has stated.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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