High court verdict on pilots’ petition likely on Thursday

Bombay High Court is likely to pronounce on Thursday its judgment in a petition challenging the extension of pilots’ working hours.

Arguments in the petition filed by the joint action committee of Airline Pilots’ Associations challenging two circulars issued by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) concluded on Monday.

Defending DGCA’s move, Air India counsel Aspi Chinoy said the decision to put the 2007 Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) in abeyance was taken because it had put under jeopardy the airline’s ability to operate. The 2007 CAR stipulated that working hours of pilots could not exceed 1,000 flying hours and introduced a ceiling of 1,600 duty hours in a year.

Chinoy said the CAR resulted in underutilisation of pilots because a pilot’s entire 1,000 flying hours could not be utilised as the 1,600 duty hours were reached earlier. He pointed out that if the CAR was followed on long-haul flights then a pilot would fly only two return flights between Mumbai and New York in a month.

He said that airlines, which are already bleeding due to high costs of fuel, would have to increase their staff by 30 % with existing staff remaining underutilised or they would have to cancel flights due to unavailability of staffers.

Solicitor general Goolam Vahanvati denied the petitioner’s allegation that the DGCA’s move was aimed at increasing profits of airlines at the cost of safety. He said DGCA had the power to reconsider its own decision and revert to the Aeronautical Information Circular (AIC) of 1992, which was followed for 15 years before the 2007 CAR. Petitioner’s counsel KK Singhvi argued that DGCA had violated its own guidelines on issuing circulars and ignored the aspect of pilots’ fatigue.