Recently, a SpiceJet aircraft flying from Gujarat had to make a priority landing in Mumbai after its windshield developed a crack mid-air.
New Delhi: SpiceJet was on Wednesday ordered to run only 50% of its flights for eight weeks by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the aviation regulator, in a crackdown after an “unusually high number” of safety incidents. SpiceJet said this will have no impact on its flights in the lean travel season and no flights will be cancelled.
The DGCA in an order said, “In view of findings of various spot checks, inspections and the reply to the show cause notice submitted by SpiceJet, for continued sustenance of safe and reliable air transport service, the number of departures of SpiceJet are restricted to 50% of the number of departures approved… for a period of eight weeks.” The airline will be subjected to “enhanced surveillance” by the DGCA during this period.
The order added, “Any increase in the number of departures beyond 50 per cent” would be subject to the airline “demonstrating to the satisfaction of DGCA that it has sufficient technical support and financial resource to safely and efficiently undertake such enhanced capacity.”
DGCA said SpiceJet had allegedly “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, it added.
Meanwhile, in a statement, SpiceJet said, “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.”
Recently, an aircraft flying from Gujarat had to make a priority landing in Mumbai after its windshield developed a crack mid-air. In other instances, there was smoke in the cabin, a malfunctioning indicator light and a bird hit etc.
The airline has denied safety issues in a tweet put out on Tuesday.