India's aviation watchdog has deferred a June 1 deadline for airlines to adopt new rules on rest and duty times for pilots, a notice on its website showed, but without stating a reason or a new target date.
Tuesday's news followed a warning from a key airline lobby group, reported last month by the Economic Times newspaper, that the scramble to meet the new rules could force cancellation of up to a fifth of flights.
Announced in January, the rules increased flight crews' weekly rest periods to 48 hours from 36 and cut pilots' night flight duty times to a maximum of 10 hours from 13.
In this week's revised website notice, however, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) allowed airlines to retain the older norms for the time being.
The rule changes followed a review of data on pilot fatigue drawn from spot checks and airline surveillance after a pilot for budget carrier IndiGo collapsed and died in August before his flight.
The Federation of Indian Airlines warned of the cancellation risk as the watchdog's deadline left too little time to hire and train the 25% more pilots required to satisfy the new rules, Economic Times said.
Last week, Tata Group-owned Air India was fined Rs 8 million by the regulator, for breaching limits on flight duty times and fatigue management.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Featured Video Of The Day
Revised Flight Duty Norms To Be Implemented From June 2025: Airlines Inform Aviation Body DGCA Issues Another Show Cause Notice To Akasa Air Over Violation: Sources "5-Year Flight Ban For Hoax Callers," Say Sources Amid Bomb Threat To Airlines Allu Arjun Summoned By Hyderabad Police For Questioning In Stampede Case Israel Confirms It Killed Ex-Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran Congress Leader Files Complaint Against Allu Arjun Over Scene In 'Pushpa 2' Check List Of Institutions Approved By Council Of Architecture Over 1,000 Vehicles Stuck Amid Heavy Snowfall In Himachal's Manali Kilauea Volcano Erupts Again, Spews Columns Of Lava Above Hawaii Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.