Post-pilots’ demand, Air India mulls beds in Boeing 787 Dreamliners

NEW DELHI: Following demand from the crew for a fully flat bed rest area, Air India is planning to have bunks installed for pilots in its Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
AI's move comes days after the union of the erstwhile Indian Airlines' pilots asked its members not to perform two landings on the long Australia-India sector as the Dreamliner flies between Melbourne and Sydney before coming to Delhi. The union says two landings on this flight would lead to fatigue due to inadequate rest, something that AI is trying to remedy now.

"The flat bed is in the discussion stage and no decision has been taken yet on providing the same on future aircraft (Dreamliners) for flights with duration of 12 hours or more," said a senior official.

AI has finalized a design for the bunk which is similar to Jet Airways' two-tier bunk. The design will be sent to Boeing so that the firm can get the same approved by the Federal Aviation Administration and then incorporate it in future Dreamliners to be delivered to AI.

An airline can do ultra-long nonstop flights by having more pilots on board. The pilots can rotate on flying duty with periods of rest for each. Resting on a fully-flat bed means that their time is counted as 100% rest, while resting on a seat spells partial rest for the purpose of determining flight duty time.

AI has so far taken delivery of 18 B-787s and three more are expected by next June. If approved by AI and Boeing, the bunk is likely to be installed in six of the 27 Dreamliners to be delivered after mid-2015.

Crew rest is proving to be a thorny issue for the airline. AI had in 2005 ordered eight Boeing 777-200 ultra long range (LR) for the over 14-hour nonstop India-North America flights. This aircraft had two side-by-side bunks for pilots in an area above first class, apart from bunks for airhostesses near the economy section.

However, the LRs proved to be such a fuel guzzler that AI had to ground them or sell them off. In their place, it started using the 15 B-777 extended-range (ER) aircraft ordered for non-stop US flights. This aircraft only has bunks for pilots. For cabin crew rest, AI earmarks six out of the 35 business class seats in the aircraft.

The non-stop India-North America flight has two captains and two co-pilots (two sets of crew). All four have to be in the cockpit in the first and last hour of the flight.