India’s civil aviation watchdog, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has taken strong disciplinary action against Air India, removing three senior officials—including a Divisional Vice President—from all roles related to crew scheduling and flight rostering.
The regulator has also directed the airline, now owned by the Tata Group, to begin internal disciplinary proceedings against the officials without delay. Any failure to comply could lead to stricter penalties, including the risk of suspension of its operating license.
This unprecedented move follows an audit conducted at Air India’s Integrated Operations Control Centre (IOCC), which manages flight crew assignments for both domestic and international routes.
DGCA Flags Major Violation of Duty Time Rules
The trigger for the action was the discovery of flight duty time violations on two consecutive Air India flights (AI133) from Bengaluru to London Heathrow, operated on May 16 and 17. According to the DGCA’s show cause notice, both flights exceeded the maximum flight duty period of 10 hours, violating key safety provisions laid out in the Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR), Section 7, Series J, Part III, dated April 24, 2019.
These were not exceptional or emergency flights. They were routine long-haul operations—and the breach of duty norms, the regulator noted, reflects a clear lapse in compliance and safety oversight.
The DGCA has issued a show cause notice to Air India’s Accountable Manager, a senior executive responsible for operational safety, demanding a response within seven days. In the absence of a timely reply, the regulator has warned it will move forward with enforcement based on available evidence.
Airline Acknowledges Regulator’s Directive
Air India, in an official response, acknowledged the seriousness of the DGCA’s concerns and said it had implemented the directive. “We have complied with the regulator’s order, and the Chief Operations Officer is now overseeing the IOCC. Air India remains fully committed to safety protocols and operational discipline,” the airline stated.
The IOCC is a critical component of any airline’s backend infrastructure, responsible for real-time crew deployment, flight planning, weather analysis, and scheduling. Lapses at this level can have direct consequences for both passenger safety and crew welfare.
Key Aviation Safety Norms
The incident has brought renewed attention to several core requirements governing commercial flight operations:
Pilot Pairing Standards: As per DGCA norms, pilots operating in a cockpit must meet specific qualification criteria to be paired with each other. There are certain criteria that must be fulfiled : the number of flying hours each pilot has logged, so that the combined total of experience in the cockpit meets a prescribed minimum threshold.
The DGCA mandates that cockpit crew must meet combined experience benchmarks to ensure safe operations.
Special Operating Clearances: Pilots must be certified for specific conditions such as low visibility, transatlantic flights, or high-altitude airfields like Leh.
Licensing and Training: Airlines must ensure both pilots are fully licensed, and all required refresher courses and simulator checks are up to date.
Flight Duty Limits: Pilots must receive adequate rest before flights and must not exceed regulatory duty hours.
Unanswered Questions and Signs of Deeper Issues
The incident has raised red flags within aviation safety circles. If the duty breaches were known, why didn’t automated systems detect and prevent them? Was there a manual override of the rostering software? And how widespread are such violations?
The DGCA’s tough stance suggests that these lapses may not be isolated mistakes but symptoms of possible systemic manipulation or failure in Air India’s operational controls. With its global ambitions and rebranding under Tata Group, the airline now faces the test of proving its commitment to regulatory compliance and passenger safety.
