In May 2023, Air India launched a safety management software called Coruson, as well as BAM (Boeing Alertness Model), a fatigue mitigation tool integrated into its shift scheduling system, which airlines use to create and manage pilot schedules. Coruson, developed by cloud software company Ideagen, centralizes, analyzes and reports on safety-related data such as incidents, hazards and risk assessments. BAM, jointly developed by Boeing and software company Jeppesen, predicts and manages pilot fatigue by analyzing flight schedules and performance data. These tools were designed to prevent the creation of shifts and pairings that lead to fatigue, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said in a statement. internal Message to employees. The airline also introduced two new digital tools for its crew: the Pilot Sector Report app, to help pilots easily submit information on flight performance, incidents and post-flight observations; and DocuNet, a digital management system that facilitates the storage, retrieval and sharing of documents (such as flight manuals, training records and compliance documents).
Despite these measures, the airline was fined by the DGCA in March this year for violating FDTL limits and fatigue management norms. This May, cabin crew of Air India Express Called in sick en masse to protest against “poor management.” This followed a similar protest by the crew, mostly pilots, in Vistara Airlines. Both Air India and Vistara are now owned by one of India’s largest conglomerates, the Tata Group, which acquired the former from the Indian government in 2008. January 2022.
Twenty-five of those who reported sick at Air India Express have been dismissed. Others have been given disciplinary notices. ultimatumThose dismissed were later reinstated by the airline after a intervention by the Chief Labour Commissioner. Almost a week earlier, the Regional Labour Commissioner of Delhi had reportedly written The Tata group chairman pointed to “flagrant violations of labour laws” and insisted that the cabin crew’s legitimate concerns be looked into. According to CNBC, Vistara employees said the agitation on their part had to do with the recent pay updates, which fixed the pay of pilots at 40 flying hours, instead of 70. The first officers to protest claimed that the new pay structure would result in a pay cut of nearly 57 percent. Under the new terms, they would also have to fly up to 76 hours to earn what they were previously earning from 70 hours.
To appease the pilots and get them back to work, management had assured them that the salaries of the “overtime hours” would be given credit once Vistara was integrated with Air India. At that time, two pilot unions of Air India had written to the company’s chairman, saying that such problems were not isolated but systemic. Exhaustion was The other related problem is that many drivers complain about not getting enough rest and being forced to push themselves to the limit.
Captain SinghA former senior manager at AirAsia, he tells WIRED that these effects significantly increase the risk of accidents, but also negatively impact pilot health in the long term. Tail-switching – running from one type of aircraft to another in order to take off immediately after disembarking from another – has become more frequent under the 13-hour rules and can further contribute to exhaustion, as can rushed acclimatisation and, most importantly, landing three, four or more flights in a row, which Captain Randhawa described as a “severe energy management challenge.”
In 2024 “Safety Culture SurveyIn a study by Singh’s Safety Matters Foundation in July, 81 percent of 530 respondents — mostly pilots on medium- and short-haul flights — said unreserved shifts contribute to their fatigue. As many as 84 percent expressed concerns about the speed and direction of shift rotation. “That’s the problem with the new shift scheduling programs that operators are introducing,” said one private airline pilot, who asked not to be named. “They’re optimizers designed to make pilots work every second of their 13-hour schedule, leaving no wiggle room.” Overbooked schedules push pilots to the limit, so any added pressure, such as unpredictable weather, can easily overwhelm them.
Solving this problem with wrist-worn fatigue measurement devices is a contentious issue, but it is not the only one. A year after they were promoted, the hype around fatigue management technology has all but died down. IndiGo has not made any updates on the wrist device. Neither IndiGo nor the Thales Group responded to requests for comment.