DGCA sends show cause notice to Air India over inordinate flight delays

Air India has received a show cause notice from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for inordinate delays of at least two international flights, as well as its failure to take due care of the passengers. The regulator mentioned the delays in two of their international flights – AI 183 from Delhi to San Francisco on May 30 and AI 179 from Mumbai to San Francisco on May 24.

This notice comes at a time when passengers of a San Francisco-bound Air India flight from Delhi, originally scheduled to take off around 3:30 pm on Thursday, faced inordinate delay, and was scheduled to take off on Friday at 3 pm. There were about 200 passengers onboard the, some of who fainted as the air-conditioning system was non-functional. 

At first the aircraft was changed due to technical glitch and the passengers boarded another plane, where the AC was not working. The plane was eventually rescheduled at 10 pm on Thursday. 

The airline official said the aircraft had developed a technical issue and engineering checks were carried out. Due to the delay, the crew had crossed the Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) and also if the flight had taken off, it would have reached San Francisco when there are night landing restrictions there, the official added.       

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia reportedly took cognisance of the flight delays and the inconvenience caused to the passengers, following which DGCA issued the show cause notice. 

The regulator noted that Air India is "time and again failing in taking due care of passengers", and not complying with its provisions related to 'Facilities to be provided to passengers by airlines due to denied boarding, cancellation of flights and delays in flights".

The regulator asked the airline to show cause why it should not face any enforcement action. Air India has been given three days to respond to the notice, following which the matter would be processed ex-parte.