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Gopalan took to social media to answer some common questions regarding the crisis faced by IndiGo Airlines. He emphasized the new FDTL rules, which mandate a 48-hour rest period for pilots, compared to the previous 36 hours.
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New Delhi: As IndiGo grapples with persistent flight cancellations, former AirAsia India CFO Vijay Gopalan shared his insights on the matter. He explained how the situation is significantly impacted by changes in Flight Duty Time Limit (FDTL) regulations.
Gopalan took to social media to answer some common questions regarding the crisis faced by IndiGo Airlines. He emphasized the new FDTL rules, which mandate a 48-hour rest period for pilots, compared to the previous 36 hours. He explained that this is the reason for the confusion.
What caused the confusion?
He said, "If they say that the previous rule was that they needed 36 hours of rest, now they say you need 48 hours of rest. This means that the number of hours a pilot is available to fly decreases. Unless you increase the number of pilots, the number of pilots available to operate all your aircraft, therefore, logically decreases."
He also clarified that recruiting pilots is not as easy as many people think. It involves fulfilling the required notice period. Gopalan said, "If a pilot wants to move between two airlines in India, and if you are a senior pilot, there is a mandatory 12-month notice period. And if you are a co-pilot, the notice period is 6 months. So, you can't just hire people like that."
Things to keep in mind when hiring pilots
Further in the video, he explained that hiring pilots involves type-rating, extensive training, and several other factors. He said, "As I told you, first, there's a notice period. Second, if you want to bring in new pilots, they have to be type-rated. They have to undergo training. They have to complete the minimum required flying hours. I don't think the Indian infrastructure supports any of this. It's a long process. It's not going to be easy. I can't build bench strength that easily."
Why are cancellations happening?
Gopalan also explained the logic behind the number of flight cancellations that have been happening for the past two to three days: "They have increased the mandatory rest period from 36 hours to 48 hours, which means there's a reduction of about 20 to 25 percent in available flying hours. If you don't manage your staff properly, you'll have to cancel 25 percent of your flights. IndiGo operates approximately 2,200 flights daily. So 25 percent of that is roughly 500 to 550."
He explained, "IndiGo has always been a very lean and mean machine, and this is nothing new. Everything has been very lean from the beginning. They are a low-cost carrier. The only other significant airline is Air India. Air India, perhaps, because many of their aircraft are grounded anyway, would have surplus pilots from those grounded aircraft who could fill this requirement."
Gopalan criticizes IndiGo
He stated that these cancellations didn't happen suddenly. Knowing that the new rules would put a lot of pressure on the airlines, he blamed IndiGo for not preparing adequately for it: "This didn't happen all of a sudden. The government had issued this notification much earlier in 2024, stating that this was going to happen."
He criticized IndiGo for this mess, saying, "To be honest, I think this is largely... the sole reason for this was the very careless and irresponsible attitude of the airline."
