High Court refuses to stay Air India's order to increase flight duty time

The Delhi High Court has refused to stay Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh's order to extend the flight duty time limitation (FDTL) of Air India pilots and cabin crew, saying it was their duty to enable Air India to pull through the financial crisis.

"Since the respondent Airlines is going through a crucial financial crisis, it becomes the duty of each and every person, who is part and parcel of the institution to work as per the established industry practises to enable respondent Airlines to pull through from its present position," Justice Suresh Kait said.

The court said it is not "inclined to stay the operation of impugned order" and added that Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and other authorities have "power to increase" the FDTL as per the civil aviation requirements (CAR).

The order came on a plea of Sheela Joshi and other cabin crew members of Air India alleging that the minister and the DGCA have "arbitrarily" changed the FDTL, which were being governed by the Air Craft Rules along with the Memorandum of Settlement agreed on October 01, 2008.

As per the DGCA guidelines, the FDTL and the Flight Time Limitation (FTL), which deals with the actual hours spent in a flying aircraft, are 11 and nine hours respectively.

As per an earlier agreement between the Union and the Airlines, FDTL and the FTL had been pegged at 9.5 and 6.5 hours respectively.

"I am of considered opinion that the respondents have the power to increase the hours as per CAR 1997 with the condition that the rest period at base shall be prorate increased by twice the amount of extended period of flight duty time. If the rest is given to the cabin crew, then neither the health of the cabin crew nor the safety of the passengers will be affected," Justice Kait said.