Senior bureaucrat Faiz Ahmed Kidwai to helm DGCA

New DGCA Director General Faiz Ahmed Kidwai faces the challenge of resolving pilot fatigue concerns amid airline opposition.

With the resolution of the stalemate over duty and rest norms for pilots following concerns of mounting fatigue levels, the officer has his task cut out

Senior IAS officer Faiz Ahmed Kidwai is the new Director General (DG) of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). 

Currently an additional secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Mr. Kidwai is a 1996-batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved his appointment on Friday.

The posting was necessitated after his predecessor, Vikram Dev Dutt, was elevated from the additional secretary rank to the rank of secretary and later transferred to the Ministry of Coal where he took charge on October 21. In the interim, a joint-DG level official at the DGCA, D.C. Sharma, was assigned the additional charge of the DG.

The top official of the DGCA has the task before him of resolving the stalemate between airlines and pilots over the latter’s duty and rest norms. The new rules announced in January 2024 increased weekly rest for pilots from 36 hours to 48 hours as well as curtailed night flying following concerns from the cockpit crew over mounting fatigue as well as instances of deaths of pilots while on duty. While the DGCA notified that these would come into effect from June 2024, they were later put into abeyance following stiff opposition from airlines that sought more time as they would need to hire more pilots.

In a letter to the DGCA last month, airlines like IndiGo and Air India Group sought to stall the regulator’s proposal to reduce night flying with IndiGo saying this would have a “severe operational impact” and Air India seeking the implementation of a data-based fatigue management system as a prerequisite. On the issue of weekly rest, IndiGo offered to enhance it in a staggered manner between June 2025 and after July 2026, while Air India has agreed to offer 48 hours of weekly rest from June 2025.