The death of two commercial pilots recently due to cardiac arrest has brought to the fore the fatigue rules for Indian pilots and the delayed implementation of the Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL), a major passenger safety concern.
Capt. Tarundeep Singh, 40, of Air India, was found dead in a hotel room in Bali on April 29, 2026, during his scheduled crew rest after the Delhi–Denpasar flight. The very next day, Capt. Arjun Naidu, 44, of Akasa Air, died during a training session in Bengaluru. There have been similar incidents in the past, raising concerns around stress and health parameters of pilots.
The All India Pilot Association (ALPA) has written to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), flagging fatigue as a critical safety concern. It questioned the continued delay in implementing the revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) framework that regulates pilot working hours and rest.
The 2025 fatigue-report data filed by each airline operator shows that the country’s two largest airlines have the worst records.
Air India received 1,578 fatigue reports from its pilots in 2025 and rejected 860 of them — a 54.5% rejection rate. IndiGo received 8,721 reports and rejected 8,449 — a 96.9% rejection rate, as per data from the Safety Matters Foundation.
Air India Express — the short-haul subsidiary of the same Tata-owned parent — accepted every single one of the 278 fatigue reports its pilots filed in 2025.
Air India and its low-cost arm, Air India Express, have 6,350 and 1,592 pilots, respectively. IndiGo has 5,058 pilots. The number of pilots at Akasa is 466 and at SpiceJet, it is 385, according to government data collated till December 2025.
02/05/2026 Richa Sharma/Business Today
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