DGCA likely to come out with fresh guidelines on block hours

Aviation regulator DGCA is likely to come out with fresh guidelines on block hours, a yardstick for on-time performance, to remove disparity among various airlines. 

Block hours refer to the moment a commercial aircraft leaves the departure gate until it lands and reaches the arrival gate, or till its engines are working. 

An airline’s on-time performance as well as facilities and financial compensation to a flyer in case of delay are determined on the basis of block hours. Block hours differ from route to route. “We want to standardise the existing block hours for different routes.

“We are studying various routes for this purpose. We want to ensure that all airlines use the same block hours for the same route,” they said.