DGCA carrying out scrutiny of SpiceJet: Minister

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is carrying out operational and financial scrutiny of SpiceJet, civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu said on Tuesday even as the airline grapple s with flight cancellations and delays.

The immediate activity in the ministry regarding SpiceJet is that we have operational and, to a certain extent, financial scrutiny also being done from the ministry through the DGCA because we don’t want any lapse in safety,” Naidu said.

As per the latest DGCA monthly data, SpiceJet’s domestic market share dropped to 1.6% in July from 1.9 per cent in June.

Naidu said the ministry was continuously engaging with the airline.“In terms of the future, we are continuously engaging and seeing how best we can facilitate the ministry side,” the aviation minister said.

“Our major priority right now is to ensure the passengers shouldn’t face any inconvenience. The safety shouldn’t be compromised at any cost in terms of operations. And then smooth operations are sustained within the airlines,” Naidu said.

He however, clarified that the government had certain restrictions while dealing with private airlines.

“..But you also see that these are private airlines. There are certain limits with which the government also can operate with them,” he said, adding, “It is with this idea that the airlines might face problems, especially during the West Asia crisis, that the government has extended the scheme of ECGLS (Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme),” Naidu said.

The minister declared that SpiceJet too had been given ₹150 crore under the scheme.

“The rest is something the organization along with the bank have to work out so that the scheme is in place. They need to get the money,” the minister said.

According to airline officials, employees have not been given salaries for close to four months.

The airline faced severe backlash from passengers at Delhi airport when two flights to Dubai were delayed due to operational reasons. While was delayed for over five hours, the other was delayed for nearly 20 hours after which passengers staged protests at the airport.

However, the airline, in a press statement on September 3 stated that it has finalised lease agreements for 20 aircraft and that it is targeting 200 daily flights for the upcoming holidays and winter schedule.