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Aviation authority reviews block time for select domestic flights
The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has advised airlines to use realistic block timings for flights. For this it has “considered” a flight time of 185 minutes for a flight between Delhi and Kochi and 130 minutes for a flight between Delhi and Mumbai. For a Delhi-Patna flight the DGCA has “considered” a new block time of 95 minutes.
On all three routes this is five minutes more than the earlier block times. The block time for flights from Delhi to Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru remains as before, officials said.
This follows a DGCA review of the block time that domestic airlines can show in their time tables for their flights.
Block time is calculated from the time that an aircraft pushes back from the departing gate till the time the captain switches off the aircraft engines after parking at the arriving gate.
“Domestic air passenger traffic has grown, airports have become slot constrained and one has to consider seasonal wind patterns while taking a view on the block timings for various routes,” a senior DGCA official said.
Officials clarified that a 130-minute block time between Delhi and Mumbai does not necessarily mean that a flight will be completed in that time as the aircraft may have to wait for a few more minutes to actually get on the ground if the airport is facing congestion.
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