As Jet Airways Fleet Stays Grounded, DGCA Asks Other Airlines To Enhance Flight Availability

Airlines these days are facing a plethora of issues whether it be technical glitches, shortage of pilots, poor ATC personnel or something as huge as being debt-ridden. Due to all of these issues, the number of aircraft on the runway is decreasing and their fares are tremendously increasing.

Until now debt-ridden Air India was the only airline struggling to cover its expenses but the staggering financial situation of Jet Airways has exacerbated the current situation. India's aviation regulator has therefore, asked all airlines to come out with individual medium-term plan by Wednesday on enhancing availability of domestic flights, in a move aimed at curbing rising airfares, government officials said.

PTI reported that airfares have increased by a large price due to the decline in the number of flights. This is primarily due to the grounding of three-fourths of cash-strapped Jet Airways' 119-aircraft fleet.

The airline¡¯s pilots had threatened to go on strike after they accused the carrier for not paying them salaries for months. The availability of flights was also hit by pulling out of Spice Jet's 12 "737 Max" aircraft in March following safety concerns in the wake of the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet on March 10.

In March this year, the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States had discovered stark similarities between the Ethiopian aircraft crash and the Lion air crash in Indonesia that killed 189 people. This discovery led the agency to ground all Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 9 planes for weeks.

An immediate and medium-term plan was requested to meet the additional demand in the market. Reportedly, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) last month approved a seven-month-long summer schedule for SpiceJet, Vistara, IndiGo, Air India and Go Air. Due to the poor financial situation of Jet Airways, the aviation body approved only a month of the summer schedule for the airline.

Photo: Reuters

While the airline has a fleet of about 119 aircraft, civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said on April 4 that only 26 aircraft of Jet Airways are flying "currently". In order to compensate for the vacant routes, IndiGo and Air Asia announced more flights on domestic and international routes.

On Wednesday, cash-starved Jet Airways ran into more trouble when IndianOil stopped fuel supplies, a cargo agent seized a Boeing plane in Amsterdam and its lenders extended the deadline for stake sale bids by two more days.

"We stopped fuel supplies to Jet Airways across the country from 3 pm Wednesday. The action came following the airline breaching its bank guarantee limits with the company," an Indian Oil Corporation official told PTI.

The DGCA every year approves summer as well as winter schedules to ensure smooth flight operations.