Air India fined ₹10 lakh for ‘not complying with rules’

The civil aviation regulator said it had carried out a surveillance inspection of all the scheduled domestic airlines in June when it observed that Air India Express was not complying with the rules

New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday imposed a fine of ₹10 lakh on Air India Express for non-compliance of rules.

(Representative Photo)

The civil aviation regulator said it had carried out a surveillance inspection of all the scheduled domestic airlines in June when it observed that Air India Express was not complying with the rules. 

The airline did not comment on the matter. However, officials close to the development said that the fine to the airline was for not compensating passengers (as per rules) during their massive flight cancellations due to the crew strike in the second week of May. Air India Express did not confirm the same.

To ensure appropriate protection for the air travelers, the DGCA has issued passenger-centric regulations to safeguard the interests of the travellers.

To secure compliance of passenger-centric CARs, it carries out inspections of domestic airlines at various major airports on a continuing basis with an aim to ensure the compliance of passenger-centric rules. 

Similarly, after finding faults in the inspection, the DGCA said that it issued a show cause notice to Air India Express seeking their response for non-compliance to the provisions of the relevant regulations.

“The reply submitted by M/s Air India Express revealed that the airline had not complied with the provisions of the aforementioned CAR for providing compensation to passengers affected due to cancellation of flights. Accordingly, DGCA has imposed a financial penalty of ₹10 lakh on M/s Air India Express for non- compliance of DGCA regulations”, the statement read. 

This comes days after the regulator imposed a fine of Rs.99 lakhs on Air India and two of its directors for operating a flight with non-qualified pilots in July this year. 

The Tata-owned airline has been fined ₹90 lakh while its director of operations Pankul Mathur and director of training Manish Vasavada have been fined ₹6 lakh and ₹3 lakh, respectively, for the lapse, the civil aviation regulator said in a statement. 

Referring to the incident on a Mumbai to Riyadh Air India flight on July 9, the DGCA said, “Air India Ltd. operated a flight commanded by a non-trainer line captain paired with a non-line-released first officer, which has been viewed by the regulator as a serious scheduling incident having significant safety ramifications.”

Before this, the DGCA, in May, had issued a show cause notice to Air India for “time and again” failing to take care of its passengers. This came after passengers complained of “insufficient” cabin cooling on two of its flights that were delayed for more than 30 hours.

Prior to that, in March, it imposed a fine of ₹80 lakh on the airline for violating rules pertaining to flight duty time limitation (FDTL). In February, the airline was fined ₹30 lakh after an 80-year-old passenger collapsed and died after walking from a plane to the terminal at Mumbai airport, as he reportedly did not get a wheelchair.