Air India Express

Fatigue risk management rules challenge LCC cost reductions as safety issues are constantly reviewed

Low-cost airlines have increasingly scheduled back-of-the-clock flights departing late at night or early in the morning, but regulators are now placing greater emphasis on new issues in pilot fatigue risk management. That in turn is seeing some airlines lose operational advantages and incur a higher cost base, even if arguably justified on safety grounds.

New regulations from India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) are impacting Air India’s LCC subsidiary, Air India Express. Previously the DGCA’s duty limitations did not differentiate between when duty time was occurring, but now the country’s pilots will be limited to seven-hour duty times instead of nine hours if the duty is for back-of-the-clock flights (officially the window of circadian low, occurring between 02:00 and 06:00). The ruling is applicable for domestic and regional flights.

India's domestic aviation market shows rapid growth in first half

On the surface, India's aviation industry looks to be in rude health, but behind the strong headline traffic figures is growing financial pain. India's airlines reported continued strong domestic passenger growth of 22.3% in Jul-2011 following on from an 18% expansion in the first half of the year. India is now the ninth largest and fastest growing domestic market in the world. The Indian government anticipates that India would become one of the three largest markets in the world by 2020.

IndiGo launches international services - targets 15% of seats in this segment by Mar-2012

IndiGo commences its much-anticipated international air services today (01-Sep-2011) after completing the mandatory five years of wholly domestic operations. The LCC, the largest in the domestic Indian market, marks the start of its foray into international markets with direct service to Dubai, followed by Singapore and Bangkok in the first phase - all key global business hubs.