Adding a few extra miles to an intercontinental flight can have many ripple effects beyond just longer coffee breaks for the passengers. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation — which regulates and oversees the safety of the aviation industry in India — has quietly provided temporary relief to crews while airlines adjust to new airspace restrictions, illustrating how quickly geopolitics can alter the global aviation regulations. DGCA
The primary reason for the change is relatively simple; the new airspace restrictions mean that airlines have to fly along significantly longer routes, and the extra cost in crew fatigue and safety limits associated with flight time and duty time limits will be an issue. A request from a major airline to the DGCA for an extension of the permitted flight duty time and duty limit has been made so that they could continue to provide service without adding crews or cancelling services. Air India.
To be specific, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (DGCA) temporarily exempts two-pilot long-haul from the maximum hours worked per day (FT) as well as the maximum amount of time pilots may be on duty in a 30-day period (FDP) has been extended by an additional hour (to be calculated through April 2018) for an additional hour and 45 minutes, respectively. Currently this will allow the airline to have an extended amount of time to accommodate longer alternative flight routing due to extended flights from an airport in North America to an airport in Europe.
It is not a permanent change to existing safety standards, as this is meant to be a short-term operational means by which a pilot may continue to operate to and from North America and Europe while avoiding airspace that may be higher risk.
The current situation is the result of the renewed conflict/insecurity in certain countries within the West Asia region, previously reported by various countries, with several countries restricting/restricting temporarily all or some or parts of their respective countries’ airspace. This month’s announcement of airspace restrictions in several Middle Eastern countries led to a statement from the Pakistan Airports Authority regarding the restriction or partial restriction of access to certain areas of their airspace; being rerouted around the country results in additional fuel costs and increased complexity for the airline’s flight planning.
There are a few operational tolerance knobs for carriers: an additional pilot (resulting in either a three- or four-person crew), scheduling technical fuel stops, or allowing longer flying hours for crew under a regulatory-approved exemption. The decisions come with trade-offs: adding an extra pilot incurs the cost of hours and reduces the number of available seats in the aeroplane; scheduling fuel stops increases total flying times, adding complexity to logistics; and extended hours of flying, even with regulatory approval, adds to the pilot’s workload and impacts unions and third-party safety observers. Initial reports indicate that many carriers are employing a combination of these options, but industry and media outlets are raising concerns about whether specific flights are exceeding the timeframe granted through regulatory exemptions.
There are economic costs associated with these operational tolerance adjustments. Longer routes increase airline fuel consumption, negatively impacting profit margins for airlines relative to historical averages and creating difficulties for connecting flights, crew changes, and maintenance. Passengers will also feel the impact; they will experience longer arrival times, increased likelihood of fuel stops, and will require better pre-departure communication regarding total journey time. The DGCA is asking all carriers to revise published schedules to include revised times, provide adequate in-flight services to passengers, and plan for additional technical stops when developing schedules.
The current episode is an example of the global choreography of modern global aviation; when there is political upheaval in one area of the globe, there are ripple effects that are felt thousands of miles away in terms of flight planning, regulatory flexibility, and commercial decisions. All airline scheduling, including timetables, crew availability, and even long-term decisions about fleets, will depend on how long these restrictions last and if they will lead to structural changes (i.e., new crew bases and different routing between continents via the Middle East).
Travelers and aviation fans alike can anticipate changes to flight schedules and occasional technical stops, with airlines providing brief explanations as to why their flights are longer than normal. Regulatory agencies state these changes are temporary and safety-orientated, but industry representatives indicate the financial and logistical problems created by regional tensions may take months or years to resolve once the situation has been resolved. There is still much to be determined, and it serves as a clear example of how intertwined the world’s airspace and geopolitics are.
