NEW DELHI, June 17: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) called a high-level meeting with Air India and Air India Express officials on Tuesday as Air India’s international flights continued to see delays and cancellations due to a combination of factors, including technical glitches.
On Tuesday 16 Air India flights were cancelled due to unavailability of aircraft and technical glitches, according to a press statement issued by the DGCA. 13 of these were scheduled to be operated by a Boeing 787 aircraft, it added.
Since the air crash of Air India’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft in Ahmedabad on June 12, a total of 83 flights operated on widebody aircraft which include aircraft such as Boeing 787s and Boeing 777s have been cancelled. Of these, 66 were scheduled to be flown by Boeing 787s.
In a press statement the DGCA said the enhanced inspections ordered by it following the Air India Boeing 787 air crash of June 12 “did not reveal any major safety concerns.” This exercise has been completed on 24 out of the 33 Boeing 787s so far.
Some of the flights cancelled on Tuesday included Air India’s London-Amritsar, Delhi-Dubai, Bengaluru-London, Delhi-Vienna, Delhi-Paris and Mumbai – San Francisco. According to Air India, Tuesday’s cancellations were due to increased turnaround times because of a combination of factors which include enhanced inspections ordered by the DGCA as well as the restrictions on Iranian airspace.
On Monday too, three flights were delayed due to either a technical snag being identified or additional checks ordered by the DGCA following the last week’s crash resulting in delays longer than anticipated due to restrictions on night flying at European airports.
The DGCA has told Air India has advised AI to “mitigate passenger delays” resulting from maintenance-related issues reported by Air India. “The airline was advised to strengthen internal coordination across engineering, operations, ground handling units and ensure availability of adequate spares.” It also laid emphasis on passenger facilitation and timely dissemination of information to passengers.
(Manas Dasgupta)
