Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 27: In one of the stringent actions against any airlines in the country, the budget airline SpiceJet was on Wednesday ordered by the aviation regulator the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to operate only 50 per cent of its total flights for the next eight weeks due to its unsatisfactory safety measures.
During the eight week period, the airline will be subjected to “enhanced surveillance,” the order said. “In view of the findings of various spot checks, inspections and the reply to the show cause notice submitted by M/s SpiceJet, for continued sustenance of safe and reliable air transport service, the number of departures of M/s SpiceJet are hereby restricted to 50% of the number of departures approved under Summer Schedule 2022 for a period of 8 weeks from the date of the issue of this order,” says the order issued by Maneesh Kumar, Joint Director-General of Civil Aviation.
Any flights beyond 50% during the next eight weeks will only be permitted if the airline is able to demonstrate that it has sufficient technical support and financial resources to safely and efficiently undertake such enhanced capacity.
An airlines spokesman, however, claimed that the DGCA’s order cutting down 50 per cent its flights would not lead to any passenger inconvenience as there would be no cancellation of flights since the airlines had already reworked the in view of the current lean travel season.
“We are in receipt of the DGCA order and will act as per directions of the regulator. Due to the current lean travel season, SpiceJet like other airlines had already rescheduled its flight operations. Hence, there will be absolutely no impact on our flight operations. We want to reassure our passengers and travel partners that our flights will operate as per schedule in the coming days and weeks. There will be no flight cancellation as a consequence of this order,” the airline’s statement said.
The order follows the DGCA show cause notice served on the airline earlier this month on “degraded” safety standards following a spate of incidents mid-flight. The airline had time until Tuesday to respond to the notice.
The regulator said SpiceJet had “failed to establish a safe, efficient and reliable air transport service.” The airline is “taking measures to arrest the trend,” the order noted, “but it needs to sustain its efforts for a safe and reliable air transport service.”
The airlines took the DGCA’s observation that SpiceJet was taking measures for arresting the trend of incidents as a positive. “The DGCA observation is very encouraging and we will continue to work under the close guidance of the regulator,” it stated.
The government had warned SpiceJet after eight incidents of flight safety were reported in a matter of 18 days. In one case, an aircraft flying from Kandla in Gujarat made a priority landing in Mumbai after its windshield developed a crack mid-air. There were separate instances of smoke in the cabin, a malfunctioning indicator light, a bird hit and several other incidents forcing diversion of flights.
Only a day before the DGCA imposed restrictions on its flights, SpiceJet had on Tuesday issues a tweet denying any safety violations. “India’s most-preferred airline is as safe and reliable as it has been for the last 17 years. Aviation regulator DGCA audited our entire operational fleet and every plane has been given the green signal to fly and there has been no safety violation,” SpiceJet had tweeted on Tuesday, just opposite of the DGCA observation on Wednesday that SpiceJet had “failed to establish a safe, efficient and reliable air transport service.”
But contrary to SpiceJet’s earlier claims that the DGCA had given safety clearance to all its planes, the government had told Parliament on Monday that the DGCA after conducting over 50 spot checks had grounded 10 of its aircrafts for safety reasons.
“The DGCA identified 10 of SpiceJet’s aircraft that could only be used after all reported defects and malfunctions were rectified, Minister of State for Civil Aviation V.K. Singh had told Rajya Sabha.
These aircraft were identified when the DGCA carried out 53 spot checks on SpiceJet’s 48 aircraft between July 9 and July 13. The regulator had served a show-cause notice on the airline on July 6, giving it three weeks to submit its response. The Minister in his response had also said the spot checks did not reveal “any major significant finding or safety violation.”
An airline spokesperson later had claimed that all the 10 aircraft were now flying. Last week, the DGCA also ordered a special audit of all commercial airlines in the country. This exercise is being carried out following a number of “engineering related incidents” across various airlines. The audit will examine availability of manpower as well as facilities and equipment, aircraft grounded due to non-availability of spares as well as the number of exemptions sought by airlines to continue to use aircraft despite bearing defective parts.