Pilots refuse to fly beyond flight duty timings hours before new CMD takes charge at Air India

New Delhi: On the very day that Ashwani Lohani took charge as the chairman and managing director of Air India, the airline’s pilots decided to make life tough for him. The Indian Commercial Pilots Association today asked its members not to operate a flight in case it is getting delayed and the working hours of the pilot are ending.

This comes just after another decision of the ICPA, to hold a week long secret ballot of members to decide on whether to strike work to protest. This after a recent directive from the Ministry of Labour which said commanders cannot be included in the category of workmen and therefore lose the right to be part of any union.

Lohani took charge from outgoing CMD Rohit Nandan and seems to have his task cut out for him. Not only does he have to find an amicable solution to the simmering discontent of pilots, Lohani has many other financial and human resources issues t deal with. He has been known as the “turnaround” man in his earlier stints in tourism and railway sectors and this experience could stand him in good stead in the present assignment.

Meanwhile, in a communication to its members, ICPA has not only asked them to strictly adhere to flight duty time limitations, it also said that frequent changes in programmed flights and pull-outs at short notice due to the acute shortage of pilots are adding to the already increased stress levels leading to “severe fatigue conditions” and therefore endangering flight safety.

“In the interest of flight safety and safety of our innocent passengers we are directing our members not to give extension on Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) on Flight and Duty Time period,” the ICPA has said. CAR lays down how much rest a pilot must get between flights and how many take offs and landings can be done in a day and in a month.

Air India stipulates that the daily flight duty time for a pilot is 8 hours and 125 hours in a month while the daily duty time for a pilot is 11 hours. The flight duty time for an AI pilot begins when the aircraft pushes back while the duty time begins from the time a pilot report’s for duty at the airport. The pilots want flight duty time reduced to six hours and from their communication today, it is clear that in any instance when the flight duty time is stretched, they may refuse to operate flights.

The pilots are resorting to these tactics after the airline’s Management decided to take them out of the category of workmen earlier this month.

Deepa Mahajan, executive director (P & IR) Air India had issued an order which said “the Ministry of Labour & Employment has after, evaluation, in light of the duties and responsibilities of ‘Pilot in Command’ (PIC) in Air India, as referred under Rule 141 of Aircraft Act 1934 and Rules made thereafter observed that the duties and responsibilities of Pilot in Command are of Managerial and Administrative nature which may not fall in the definition of the ‘Workman under section 2(s) of the Industrial Disputes Act 1947’.”

What this means is an Air India PIC is a manager and an administrative category of pilot which forbids him or her from forming a union. There is a feeling in Airlines House, the headquarters of Air India, that the notification of 20 August gives legal sanctity to a practice that the erstwhile Indian Airlines has been following for over two decades. Air India officials have downplayed the entire incident saying that they were confident that flight operations will not be affected.

A senior official said the 8-hour flight duty limitation has been fixed as per regulator DGCA and is being strictly adhered to. He rubbished pilots’ claims that the dgca norms are being routinely violated and pilots are made to work without adequate rest.