LONDON – The DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) of India has recently imposed a fine of 10 Lakh rupees on Air India.
The fine was imposed on Air India after it was found that the airline has been violating the rules laid down for denial of boarding, in instances where a passenger who has a confirmed ticket and has arrived at the airport on time but still the airline has denied boarding and did not compensate passengers according to the guidelines laid down by the DGCA in 2010.
When a passenger is denied boarding due to various reasons such as overbooking last-minute flight cancellations etc, the guidelines laid down by the DGCA had mentioned how the situation should be handled and what type of compensation should be provided to the passengers.
But during the surprise check conducted by the DGCA, it was found that in many instances Air India was openly violating the rules and was not providing passengers with adequate compensation in the situation.
Recently chief of DGCA Mr. Arun Kumar had warned airlines against not following the rules laid down by DGCA and had ordered a surprise inspection across the country.
DGCA released a statement that said “During our surveillance at Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Delhi, specific instances (were detected) where Air India (was not following) the regulation”
“A show-cause notice was issued to AI and a personal hearing is given. It appears the airline doesn’t have a policy in this regard and is not paying any compensation to hapless passengers, it is a matter of serious concern and is unacceptable.”
“After going through AI submissions, the authority has fined Rs 10 Lakh. The airline has also been advised to put the systems in place to resolve the issue, failing which further action shall be taken”.
However, some positive news coming from Air India is that the airline has decided to procure Airbus A350 aircraft.
According to “Money Control” the airline has decided to purchase A350 and its first delivery is expected by March 2023.
Though at this time there has been no official word regarding this from AirBus or Air India, it would really be a game-changer for the airline. Air India had placed its last order for new aircraft back in 2006 when it decided to procure a total of 111 new aircraft.
Air India has suffered a lot from mismanagement and took up huge losses in the last few years after which the government decided to sell this airline to a private player.
Air India is in desperate need of good management and upgrade of its cabin.
Our previous article highlighted how aircraft were not utilized properly by the airline and in some instances, new aircraft were grounded so their spares could be used to keep other aircraft operational.
According to the report, Air India has started asking its Pilots if they are interested to get ‘Conversion Training” to operate the A350.
