New Delhi: Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday ordered the airline to operate a maximum of 50 percent of its approved summer flights for eight weeks in the wake of several incidents of technical glitches in SpiceJet aircraft.
According to the DGCA, the budget airline will be closely monitored by the regulator during these eight weeks. The airline, however, said in a statement that it has received the DGCA’s order and will abide by it. It said that none of its flights will be canceled due to the regulator’s order, as the airline is operating a limited number of services due to the current ‘lean travel season’.
The DGCA on March 11 approved 4,192 weekly domestic flights of SpiceJet for this summer. This is till 29 October. As per the regulator’s Wednesday order, the airline cannot operate more than 2096 flights for the next eight weeks. Between June 19 and July 5, there were at least eight incidents of technical glitches in SpiceJet planes. After this, on July 6, the DGCA issued a show cause notice to the airline.
In its order on Wednesday, the aviation regulator said that in view of various site checks, inspections, and responses to the show cause notices submitted by SpiceJet, for the continued sustenance of safe and reliable transport service, SpiceJet’s approved flights for the summer. The numbers are capped at 50 percent for eight weeks.
The DGCA said that if the airline wants to operate more than 50 percent of the flights during these eight weeks, it will have to demonstrate that it has adequate technical support and financial resources to safely operate the flights at the increased capacity.
The regulator said that it had conducted a financial audit of the airline in September last year and found that it was reducing money on inflows and payments to suppliers and vendors were not being made on a regular basis, leading to a shortage of parts. . He said the internal security situation in the airline is poor and maintenance is also not being done adequately.
The DGCA said the airline had replied to the show cause notice on Monday and it was reviewed at an “appropriate level” and it was found that the company is taking measures to prevent incidents of technical snags. On July 2, the crew members of the Jabalpur-bound flight noticed smoke in the cabin at an altitude of about 5,000 feet, following which the plane returned to Delhi.
On July 5, SpiceJet’s cargo plane bound for Chongqing city of China returned to Kolkata due to a non-functioning weather radar system. On the same day, SpiceJet’s Delhi-Dubai flight was diverted to Karachi due to a fault in the fuel indicator, while SpiceJet’s Q400 aircraft landed on a priority basis at the Mumbai airport after a crack in the windshield at an altitude of 23,000 feet.
