Pilots Mull Legal Options, Protest Against DGCA’s One-Year Notice Period

Pilots employed by Indian carriers plan to take legal recourse and stage protests in major cities against the aviation regulator’s move to double the notice period to one year if they switch jobs.

Pilots’ unions will meet in Mumbai on Thursday to decide the future course of action, said D Balaraman, president of the National Aviators’ Guild. “We will definitely take legal recourse… this is an unfair decision. We are meeting to decide the details, and will then involve our legal teams to chalk out details.”

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Wednesday asked commanding pilots to either serve the notice period or risk losing their flying licence. Co-pilots are required to serve six months as notice period after tendering their resignations.

“It has been observed that pilots are resigning without providing any notice to the airlines. In some cases, even groups of pilots resign together without notice and as a result, airlines are forced to cancel their flights at the last minute,” the regulator said in its amended Civil Aviation Requirement clause on its website. Such resignations by pilots and the resultant cancellation of flights cause inconvenience and harassment to the passengers, it said.

In 2005, the regulator first set the six-month notice period for pilots, including commanders. Pilots’ unions challenged it in many courts, including the Bombay High Court, which refused to grant any relief.

The decision to increase the notice period from six months to one year came after pressure from airlines that said pilots used to resign and leave without serving any notice period, sometimes even in groups, senior aviation ministry officials told BloombergQuint. The airlines, the officials said, raised concerns of flights being delayed, rescheduled, or even cancelled as a result.

The DGCA had sought feedback from stakeholders on the matter. The most of it was against the year-long notice period, said the ministry officials quoted earlier.

Regulatory Over-reach?

One argument in support of the notice period being raised to a year was mooted by Air India's former Executive Director Jitendra Bhargava, who told BloombergQuint that the nature of bookings in the sector as a key differentiator from other industries.

“In which industry do you book your tickets 10 months in advance, or 11 months in advance. Can you (then) afford to cancel a flight and not operate a flight, and leave the passenger in the lurch,” he argued.

But according to him, the regulator should not have intervened and left the matter up to the airlines. “The unfortunate part is that DGCA is playing the part that should have been played by airlines,” he said.