India’s civil aviation authority has limited SpiceJet’s summer flights to 50% for the next eight weeks over safety concerns and inadequate maintenance actions.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in an interim order that the low-cost carrier performed “poor internal safety oversight and inadequate maintenance actions”. The regulator added that SpiceJet will be subject to an eight-week “enhanced surveillance” by the DGCA.
The DGCA’s interim order also referred to a financial assessment carried out in September 2021 which revealed that suppliers were not being paid on a regular basis, leading to a shortage of spare parts.
In view of findings of various spot checks, inspections & reply to show cause notice submitted by SpiceJet number of departures of SpiceJet is restricted to 50% of the number of departures approved under Summer Schedule 2022 for 8 weeks from the date of issue of this order: DGCA pic.twitter.com/nkeN4dVCBz
— ANI (@ANI) July 27, 2022
In a statement, SpiceJet said that it will comply with the DGCA’s order and that there will be no impact on flight operations.
#SpiceJetStatement: We are in receipt of the DGCA order and will act as per directions of the regulator. Due to the current lean travel season, SpiceJet like other airlines had already rescheduled its flight operations. >>
— SpiceJet (@flyspicejet) July 27, 2022
The news comes less than a month after the Indian regulator issued SpiceJet with a warning notice over poor safety oversight. The DGCA had reviewed a number of incidents since April 1, 2022 and observed that on several occasions “the aircraft either turned back to its originating station or continued landed to the destination with degraded safety margins.”