Chairman and MD of budget airline SpiceJet Ajay Singh has said that there is nothing alarming or to be worried about amid recent incidents. Singh told India Today that these are “normal course of events”. He further said the narrative on lack of safety is “absolutely and completely wrong”.
Singh also said SpiceJet is happy to work with aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in case of concerns. Singh said, “If they (DGCA) feel there are any gaps, we will certainly work with them.”
He also talked about the meeting with the DGCA and said, “They (DGCA) pointed out a few issues and, of course, we will address them. We are all on the same side. For all of us, safety is paramount.”
Singh highlighted the airline has one of the best records in the same. “We have amongst the best safety records not only in the country but around the world. We will continue to put safety paramount to anything that we do.” He also went onto claim that the aviation regulator is taking cognizance of media reports.
Singh further underscored that social media “frenzy” over these incidents is unfortunate and “brings down the confidence of the travelling public in airlines.”
He also said that none of the incidents reported have anything to do with a shortage of spare part while adding the airline has been negotiating with its vendors and has no outstanding to oil companies, airports or salaries.
Singh’s comments come after the DGCA issued a show-cause notice to SpiceJet on Wednesday due to a spate of incidents of technical malfunction in its aircraft over the last 18 days.
The DGCA ordered the airline to reply to this notice within 3 weeks of receipt and explain why no regulatory action should be taken against SpiceJet.
The notice read, “Poor internal safety oversight and inadequate maintenance action (as most of the incidents are related to either component failure or system-related failure) has resulted in degradation of the safety margins.”
SpiceJet was hit by a technical snag on Tuesday as the airline’s Kolkata-Chongqing freight flight returned to Kolkata airport due to dysfunctional weather radar. This, however, was not the first incident since the airline’s Delhi-Dubai flight suffered a mid-air malfunction in the fuel indicator and had to be diverted to Karachi.
(With inputs from Poulomi Saha)