In May 2023, Air India launched a safety management software called Coruson, and BAM (Boeing Alertness Model), a fatigue reduction tool integrated into its planning system, used by airlines to create and manage flight schedules. Coruson, developed by cloud software company Ideagen, centralizes, analyzes, and reports on security-related data—such as incidents, accidents, and vulnerability assessments. BAM, jointly developed by Boeing and software company Jeppesen, predicts and manages pilot fatigue by analyzing flight schedules and performance data. These tools are designed to prevent the creation of fatigued rosters and pairings, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson noted in an internal message to employees. The carrier also introduced two new digital tools for its crew—the Pilot Sector Report app, to help pilots easily submit information about flight operations, 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).
Apart from these measures, the airline was fined by the DGCA in March this year for violating FDTL restrictions and fatigue control rules. This May, Air India Express cabin crew called in several sick people to protest “mismanagement.” This followed a similar strike by workers, particularly pilots, at Vistara Airlines. Both Air India and Vistara are now owned by one of India’s largest conglomerates, the Tata Group, which took over from the Indian government in January 2022.
Twenty-five of those who called in sick to Air India Express were disconnected. Others are said to have been given a destiny. The evicted were later reinstated by the airline following the intervention of the Labor High Commissioner. About a week ago, the Delhi state labor commissioner is said to have written to the Tata group chairman pointing out “flagrant violations of labor laws” and insisting that the legitimate concerns of the workers be addressed. According to CNBC, Vistara employees said the uproar on their end was related to recent wage revisions, which fixed a pilot’s pay per 40 hours of flight—down from 70. to cut. Under the new rules they will also have to fly up to 76 hours to earn their 70 hour salary.
To appease the pilots and get them back to work, management assured them that “overtime” wages would be included once Vistara was merged with Air India. At that time, two unions of Air India pilots had written to the chairman of the company, saying that these issues were not isolated but a process. Burnout was another related problem, with many pilots complaining of not getting enough rest and being pushed to their limits.
Captain Singh, a former executive at AirAsia, tells WIRED that such effects greatly increase the risk of accidents, but also have a negative impact on the pilot’s health in the long run. Tail-shifting—running between different types of aircraft to take off quickly after landing on another—has become more common under the 13-hour rules, and can contribute to fatigue, as does rapid adaptation and, more importantly, sitting three, four, or more flights in a row, Capt. Randhawa described it as “a big challenge to manage power.”
In the 2024 “Safety Culture Survey” conducted by Singh’s Safety Matters Foundation in July, 81 percent of 530 respondents, mostly mid-hour pilots, said bufferless rosters contribute to their fatigue. About 84 percent expressed concern about the speed and direction of shift change. “That’s the problem with the new software installed by the operators,” said a private airline pilot, who asked not to be identified, the pilot said. “It’s a booster designed to make pilots work every second of their 13-hour schedule, leaving no room to breathe.” Buffer-less timetables push pilots to their limits, so any extra pressure—like unpredictable weather—can easily frustrate them.
Solving this problem with wrist-worn fatigue measuring devices is controversial. But that is not the only problem. A year since they were promoted, the buzz about fatigue management technology has died down. There are no updates from IndiGo regarding the handset. Neither IndiGo nor Thales Group responded to requests for comment.