On Tuesday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) fined Tata Group-owned airline Air India Rs 10 lakh for violating the regulator’s norms pertaining to denying boarding to passengers holding valid tickets.
The aviation safety regulator said that the matter is “of serious concern and unacceptable”.
“After going through AI submissions, as part of enforcement action, the competent authority has levied a penalty of Rs 10 Lakh. In addition, the airline has been advised to immediately put the systems in place to resolve the issue failing which further action shall be taken by DGCA,” the aviation watchdog said in a statement.
This comes after a series of fines being imposed by the DGCA recently.
The regulator had fined Vistara Rs 10 lakh, at the start of June, due to the airline violating takeoff and landing clearance as it was given to first officers without conducting any training.
This came after IndiGo was handed a Rs 5 lakh fine by the DGCA for denying boarding to a specially-abled child.
Prior to that, SpiceJet also said that its 90 barred pilots will undergo re-training after the DGCA imposed a Rs 10 lakh fine on the carrier.
“In the case of Air India -- where the regulation is not being followed -- a show cause notice was issued to the Airline and also a personal hearing was afforded. It appears that the airline does not have a policy in this regard and is not paying any compensation to hapless passengers, whose numbers can be anybody’s guess,” the DGCA said.
At present, Air India operates a fleet of both narrow body and widebody aircraft Airbus A320ceo family, Airbus A320neo, and widebody fleet is Boeing 777 series and Boeing 787 making a total of 125 aircraft.
On 14 February 2022, after its re-privatization, the airline appointed İlker Aycı, former Chairman of Turkish Airlines from 2015 to 2022 as its new CEO and Managing Director.
He was supposed to take the charge on or before 1 April 2022, but declined the offer in the backdrop of Swadeshi Jagaran Manch demanding Tata Sons to rethink its decision and the government to show sensitivity since the matter involved national security issues.
The company declined immediate comment on the issue. Later, in March 2022, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Tata Sons was appointed as the chairman of the airline.
Later in May 2022, Tata Sons appointed Campbell Wilson as Air India's CEO and MD.
