The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has met all but one of the 19 deficiencies pointed out by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in flight safety issues and surveillance to prevent its downgrading by the US aviation regulator.
The on-time performance (OTP) of Indian carriers took a major dip in January as dense fog foiled their flight schedules. According to data from the Ministry of Civil Aviation reviewed by Business Standard, five out of six major Indian carriers - IndiGo, Air India, AIX Connect, Akasa Air, and Vistara - recorded their lowest OTPs in at least the last 11 months. In response to queries, an Air India spokesperson said that during this winter, northern India experienced unusually prolonged periods of dense fog affecting traffic at the airline's two largest hubs -- Delhi and Mumbai.
This is the third enforcement action against a Tata Group airline in over a month.
As Go First awaits the NCLT verdict on its voluntary insolvency resolution plea, lessors have sought deregistration of nine more aircraft of the crisis-hit airline. In one week, various lessors have approached aviation regulator DGCA for deregistration and repossession of a total of 45 planes of Go First. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is set to pronounce the order on the carrier's petition on Wednesday.
Aviation regulator DGCA has suspended two pilots of Tata Group's Taj Air, a non-scheduled airline that flies Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata and Chairman Cyrus Mistry among others, for allegedly falsifying medical records.
Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu said appropriate action would be taken in case anything is 'found wanting'.
The large scale diversion on the night of January 5-6 was mainly because of these aircraft being operated by pilots not trained on Category-III Instrument Landing System, DGCA sources said.
The airline management has now sought a meeting with civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju to present the airline's plan.
'We have seen some videos wherein mediapersons are standing too close to each other in the 6E264 flight on Wednesday. It seems to be a violation of safety and social distancing protocols'
Of the 1,700 licences verified by it, the DGCA found seven cases of fake qualifications in mark sheets and flight hours.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has come out with a fresh circular making it clear that "in case the airline is compelled to operate a particular flight with a higher capacity aircraft, it shall be ensured that the capacity is restricted to that of the original aircraft".
Indian airlines will operate a total of 23,732 flights every week during the winter schedule, which is more than 8 per cent higher than the year-ago period, amid rising air traffic demand. The winter schedule 2023 -- effective from October 29 to March 30 next year -- for the scheduled carriers has been approved by aviation regulator DGCA. Go First, which stopped flying from May 3 and is undergoing an insolvency resolution process, will not be having any operations during the winter schedule.
DGCA Deputy Director P K Chattopadhyay will head the probe. He has been appointed the Inspector of the Inquiry, official sources said.
As per the new guidelines, internet services will be provided on the device's flight mode and will be available 10,000 feet above sea level or before arrival or after departure.
Last Friday, DGCA issued a show cause notice to the airline why its operating permit should not be suspended.
As the majority of Pakistani airspace has remained closed for Indian airlines since the Balakot strike on February 26, the decision to avoid affected Iranian airspace on Saturday is going to further disturb the routes of their international flights towards middle-eastern and European countries, and the US.
Licence suspension would be revoked only after stakeholders are convinced of the airline's revival plan, say sources.
In a blow to airlines overcharging travelers during peak season, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has mad eit mandatory to publish details of all-inclusive fares on the first day of every calendar month.
Three groups blame companies of excluding locals from hiring in the country.
It is not often that the head of a regulator is removed by the nodal ministry, even after the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by the prime minister, clears an extension.
With a large number of senior pilots quitting jobs in Indian carriers for greener foreign pastures, aviation regulator DGCA has warned of stringent action, including cancellation of licences, against those leaving without serving proper notice.
Under the guidelines, pilots have less time to fly and airlines say they will have to recruit 20 to 25 per cent more pilots, at a time when there is a shortage of pilots across the globe. The DGCA has included non-flying hours within an overall annual duty cap of 1,600 hours per pilot, within which the number of flying hours has been capped at 1,000 hours a year.
Having failed to receive their May salary as assured by the Kingfisher management, the airline pilots have now threatened to approach DGCA if they did not meet the commitment by today even as the regulator maintained that the issue is out of its purview.
The regulator will audit an airport's ground facilities, its turnaround and general safety procedures, and the movement of vehicles. Underground facilities, ground servicing equipment, passenger boarding bridges, condition of the apron, marking and lighting, and availability of foreign object dustbin bins will be checked.
The new regulatory body would be called the Civil Aviation Authority and would replace the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
International Lease Finance said on Monday it had removed one of six aircraft stranded in India by the dispute over the suspension of operations at Kingfisher Airlines. This decision comes after the DGCA's meeting with Airports Authority of India and the civil aviation ministry.
The DGCA's unprecedented move came after the regulator's team found that several flights operated by GMR Aviation in the last month, including one on Monday when an aircraft flew Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to Bhubaneshwar, had skipped some mandatory tests, DGCA sources said.
The DGCA official who wrongly assigned the code of Antonov AN-32 -- an aircraft used by the IAF -- to the SpiceJet aircraft has been suspended, report Arindam Majumder and Aneesh Phadnis.
The airlines in their representation had said that pilots had to be spared for the renewal procedure, which took a lot of time.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has asked senior officials of the airlines, including CEO Sanjay Aggarwal, to appear before it tomorrow to explain the cancellations.
The new regulator will be called Civil Aviation Authority that will also administer financial matters.
The incident came to the notice of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) only on January 4 and the latest actions are for violations of various norms.
The DGCA said, '(the) Crew initiated action only when the master cautions warning i.e after 15 seconds of autopilot disengage'.
The DGCA report, a copy of which is with Business Standard, stated that under the Madras high court direction, an inspection was carried out by a team headed by V K Arora, deputy director general, DGCA.
"We will not regulate fares but there are cases of airlines charging very high fares in a particular route and such airlines will be asked to explain the reasons for that. They cannot charge such high fares without any valid reason," said a civil aviation ministry official.
'A passenger on our flight AI130, operating London-Mumbai on March 10, was found smoking in the lavatory. Subsequently he behaved in an unruly and aggressive manner, despite repeated warnings,' Air India said.
SpiceJet will have to refund fare to passengers due to a flight delay.
The aviation regulator slapped fines amounting to Rs 2.75 crore on Indian airlines in 2023, marking a 39 per cent rise in financial penalties from Rs 1.97 crore in 2022. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said it imposed fines on domestic carriers such as Air India, IndiGo, AirAsia India and SpiceJet for issues related to non-compliance in 2023. The regulator also carried out a record number of 5,745 surveillance activities in the year to ensure compliance by airlines, aerodrome operators, and aviation personnel among others.
"We are visiting Mumbai airport and will also be meeting ATC officials on Tuesday as part of our probe," an official associated with the eight-member probe team said. The team will probe Monday's incident involving a chopper from President Pratibha Patil's fleet that had landed on the same runway, which a Delhi-bound aircraft with 150 passengers on board was using to take off.
