The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) raised concerns regarding Air India’s maintenance related issues during a high-level meeting with the airlines which. However, the civil aviation authority said that there were no major safety concerns with the airline’s Boeing 787 fleet.
On Tuesday, DGCA held a high-level meeting with senior officials of Air India and Air India Express. The meeting was held while DGCA is inspecting the safety measures of the airline’s Boeing 787-8/9 Dreamliner fleet in wake of the recent plane crash in Ahmedabad that killed 241 people onboard. According to DGCA, the meeting was convened to review the operational robustness of the airlines and ensure continued compliance with safety and passenger service regulations.
The aviation authority pressed on the airline’s maintenance related delays and advised it to strengthen internal coordination across engineering, operations, ground handling units. It also directed the airline to ensure availability of adequate spares to mitigate passenger delays resulting from such issues. The regulator recommended the implementation of a more systematic and real-time defect reporting mechanism to ensure that operational and safety-critical departments receive timely updates.
Notably, the regulator said that the recent surveillance conducted on Air India’s Boeing 787 fleet did not reveal any major safety concerns. It said that the aircraft and associated maintenance systems were found to be compliant with existing safety standards. Talking about the status of the enhanced safety inspection of the fleet, it said that, out of the 33 aircraft fleet, it had completed inspection of 24 aircraft by 3pm on Tuesday while it claimed to complete two additional aircraft by the end of the day and others in the coming days.
According to DGCA, Air India operated 55 flights on Tuesday, of which 30 were operated using Boeing 787 aircraft. However, the airline saw cancellation of total 16 flights including 13 B-787. The regulator also discussed the impact of recent airspace closure over Iran, which have led to flight diversions, delays, and cancellations. The airline was asked to ensure timely communication with passengers and crew and adopt alternate routing strategies to minimize disruptions.
