In a controversial move, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has chosen capitulation over enforcement.
On Friday, December 5, just hours after IndiGo sought exemptions to manage its operational meltdown, the regulator issued a circular that effectively dilutes pilot rest mandates.
This is a move that critics are calling a betrayal of both passengers and flight crews, the DGCA withdrew its previous instruction which stated that “no leave shall be substituted for weekly rest”. This decision, signed by Assistant Director of Operations Himanshu Srivastava, cites “ongoing operational disruptions” as the primary justification for the rollback.
This development marks a disturbing pivot in Indian aviation regulation. The original rule was a safety safeguard, designed to ensure that a pilot’s mandatory weekly rest was a distinct period of recovery, separate from sick leave or privilege leave. By withdrawing this protection “with immediate effect,” the regulator has opened the door for airlines to potentially count leave days towards mandatory rest periods, thereby squeezing more availability out of an already fatigued workforce.
The timing is unmistakable. It comes directly on the heels of IndiGo admitting to the Ministry of Civil Aviation that it had misjudged its crew requirements for the new fatigue norms and needed “operational variations” to stabilize its schedule.
Rather than penalizing the carrier for selling tickets without the requisite crew to fly the planes, the regulator has relaxed the leash. The logic appears to be that the only way to stop the mass cancellations and stranded passengers is to lower the safety bar. It sends a perilous message to the industry: if an airline is too big to fail, safety regulations become negotiable. The “Competent Authority” has essentially sanctioned a workaround for the very problem—pilot fatigue—that the new norms were supposed to fix.
The betrayal here is twofold. Passengers are being flown by crews whose rest buffers are being eroded to fix a corporate planning failure. Pilots, who have been raising alarms about stress and fatigue, now find their regulatory shield weakened by the very body sworn to protect them. The crisis that began with IndiGo’s rostering failure has now morphed into a regulatory collapse, where the immediate need to clear airport terminals has superseded the long-term imperative of flight safety.
