Vistara Airlines has paid a record fine of 70 lakh to India's civil aviation regulator for failing to operate the required minimum number of flights to the nation's northeastern underserved areas, according to officials.
The full-service carrier was penalised by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in October of last year for breaking the rules in April.
“The airline paid the fine this month,” an official said, seeking anonymity.
Director general Arun Kumar
Director general Arun Kumar confirmed the development but declined to comment further on the issue.
“As a law-abiding organisation and in compliance with the order, Vistara has paid the penalty under protest,” a Vistara spokesperson told according to Hindustan Times.
“We also confirm to have deployed capacity in excess to the RDG (route dispersal guidelines) requirement since then, as we had been doing in the past.”
Bagdogra flights
According to officials, Vistara was unable to conduct one flight out of Bagdogra, and as a result, a record-breaking fine was placed on the airline.
Srinagar-Jammu-Srinagar, Bagdogra-Dibrugarh-Bagdogra, and Dibrugarh-Guwahati-Dibrugarh are the CAT IIA routes that Vistara offers using RDGs.
The available seat kilometres (ASKM) for Vistara for April 2022 were found to be 0.99%, which is less than the 1% threshold set by the civil aviation ministry for northeastern routes.
“We have been consistently deploying more than the requisite ASKMs in the various categories, as prescribed in the RDG rule. For April 2022 also, we were poised to deploy significantly more than the minimum required ASKM per category, which would have resulted in 1.22% flights on CAT IIA routes against the requirement of 1%,” the airline said.
“However, some flights had to be cancelled due to the closure of Bagdogra airport, leading to a shortfall of just 0.01% in the required number of flights in April 2022.”
The matter was highlighted in October last year, after which the airline had submitted a reply, a second official said.
“Their reply, however, was not found to be satisfactory by the DGCA even in their appeal,” the official said.
Flights connecting to airports in the northeast, including Bagdogra in West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep, constitute the category II routes, and flights within these areas are classified as category IIA.
“Vistara had previously defaulted in the requirement of ASKM deployment in CAT IIA routes of route dispersal guidelines in November and December 2017 and in January 2018,” the second official said, adding that no penalty was imposed then, as there was no provision of levying penalty before May 2021.
