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Business Standard
5 days ago
- Business Standard
'Serious' safety violations: DGCA issues 4 show cause notices to Air India
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday (July 23) issued four show-cause notices to Air India over repeated violations of cabin crew deployment, training lapses, rest regulations, and operational oversight that compromise flight safety. The regulator has held multiple senior executives accountable, and asked the airline to explain why enforcement action should not be initiated. The DGCA has given the airline 14-15 days to respond. The regulator will proceed with enforcement action based on available evidence if Air India fails to reply to the notices. The enforcement action comes weeks after the AI171 crash in Ahmedabad on June 12, wherein 260 people were killed. One of the notices was based on Air India's voluntary disclosure dated June 20, which revealed that the airline operated four ultra long-range flights in April and May, with fewer cabin crew members than the regulatory minimum of 15. On flights AI126 and AI188 on April 27, only 12 and 14 crew members were deployed, respectively. On April 28, AI190 had 14 crew, and on May 2, AI126 flew with only 12. These flights violated rules the deal with crew's fatigue risk management. The DGCA held the airline's Director of Cabin Safety responsible for these. 'Such non-compliance represents a serious breach and raises concerns about the safety management and operational oversight,' the DGCA stated in the first notice. A second notice, based on a disclosure dated June 21, flagged three separate violations involving cabin crew operating flights without valid competency cards. One crew member flew on April 10 and 11 despite a lapsed certification, while another served on multiple flights between February and May under similar conditions, and a third operated a flight on December 1, 2024, after deploying an emergency slide, which disqualifies them from flying without undergoing a requalification process. The regulator held the Chief of Safety and Training Management accountable. When asked about these notices, Air India spokesperson said, "We acknowledge receipt of these notices related to certain voluntary disclosures that were made over the last one year. We will respond to the said notices within the stipulated period. We remain committed to the safety of our crew and passengers." The third notice from the DGCA listed 19 instances of training-related lapses involving pilots. These included a 114-day gap between simulator training and a release check, premature release of pilots before completing required sessions, and multiple violations of night operations clearance. The Director of Training was called out for failing to ensure compliance with training oversight mechanisms. The fourth notice related to three instances of crew duty and weekly rest requirements, reported by the airline itself on June 20. Two of the breaches occurred on June 24, 2024, and one on June 13, 2025. These were found to contravene regulation that governs crew fatigue and scheduling. 'Despite repeated warning and enforcement action of non-compliance in the past, systemic issues related to compliance monitoring, crew planning, and training governance (remain) unresolved,' the fourth notice mentioned. The Director of Flight Operations, Pankul Mathur, was held responsible.
NDTV
01-06-2025
- Business
- NDTV
Exclusive: Air India CEO On How Airline Plans To Deal With Unruly Passengers
New Delhi: Amid mounting concerns from fliers over Air India's quality of services and incidents of rowdy passengers creating ruckus aboard a flight, the airline's CEO, Campbell Wilson, in an exclusive conversation with NDTV, answered tough questions on incidents of clogged toilets forcing flight diversions, passenger misconduct toward the cabin crew and how the airline plans to deal with such incidents. The Air India CEO spoke about the support from the aviation watchdog, DGCA, in dealing with such incidents. He also shared the state of Air India's fleet refurbishment and how the airline plans to expand its global footprint. 'Need To Acceptable Standard Of Behaviour' The Air India CEO said there needs to be an "acceptable standard of behaviour on any form of transport, including aviation," and we need to hold the customers to those standards, acceptable if they try to transgress. In the past, unruly passengers have caused chaos mid-air - from aggressive behaviour towards the cabin crew to shocking incidents where drunken fliers urinated on fellow travellers, causing a ruckus. Air India flights have faced major disruptions due to the malfunctioning of lavatories. In March this year, NDTV reported that an Air India flight from Chicago to Delhi was forced to return to its point of departure due to unserviceable lavatories on the plane. The staff of the AI126 flight discovered operational issues in eight of the 12 toilets onboard. Roughly two hours after takeoff, the attendants reported that some of the lavatories in the Business Economy section were out of order. An investigation by the flight crew uncovered the alarming cause: a series of blockages resulting from certain items having been thrown into the toilets. A picture showed plastic waste had also been flushed down one of the toilets on the aircraft. Also read: Pics Show What Clogged Air India Lavatories, Causing Flight To Return To US Other pictures sourced by NDTV, of at least two such incidents from separate Air India flights, showed an entire blanket being pulled out from an aircraft plumbing tube, and another image showed an item of clothing in a tube. (1) Images of what was flushed down the toilet of AI-126, an Air India 777-300ER which flew 5 hours on a flight to India before having to return to Chicago when most of its toilets were clogged - plastic waste and what appears to be clothing. @ndtv — Vishnu Som (@VishnuNDTV) March 10, 2025 Responding to such incidents, Mr Wilson said, "We have to educate (passengers) because it is true that some people may not be experienced travellers and may not be aware of the implications of their actions or the implications of having, you know, one too many drinks at altitude." Mr Wilson said, "As an airline, we need to equip our crew with the training and the confidence and the assurance that they will be supported when they hold people to standards of behaviour that we expect." Mr Wilson said the concerns are "multifaceted". There's not an easy solution, but I think it's just something we need to keep at. It's a difficult situation for an airline, particularly a flight which is operational, which has to divert for whatever reason is." The Air India CEO said such incidents also lead to a financial hit and cause inconvenience to hundreds of other passengers onboard the plane and to those who are waiting for the aircraft to arrive. He added that dealing with such situations is an active part of the crew training. Support from DGCA To a question on how the aviation regulator of India, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has supported airlines when such incidents occur, Mr Campbell said, "In times past, if there was an incident on board our aircraft that we felt we wanted to report to the police, our crew would need to physically go to the police premises and oftentimes wait many, many hours to be able to report. And this is after they had operated a 10 or a 15-hour flight, which is just, it wasn't acceptable." "The authorities have realised this as an impediment to reporting and, therefore, encouraging good behaviour. So they've changed the process so that our crew can do their duty of reporting without having to be so inconvenienced in the process. So people are recognising the issue," he further said. "The solutions are coming into place. It's not an easy problem to solve, but I think there's a concerted and shared vision to solve it," he added. State Of Air India's Fleet Refurbishment The passenger revenue has more than doubled, and cargo revenue has tripled since the privatisation of Air India. Over 50 per cent of the fleet today offers new or upgraded cabin interiors, and half a million passengers are now seeing the new Air India every week, Mr Wilson shared. The Air India CEO said, "65 per cent of our current narrowbody fleet is already equipped with world-class interiors. Our narrowbody fleet that flies domestic and short-haul international routes will complete a retrofit by the end of the year. 35 per cent of the current widebody fleet offers new or significantly upgraded interiors, with those aircraft operating on multiple routes to major gateways around the world, including New York, New Jersey, San Francisco, London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Dubai, Bali, Mauritius, and Singapore. By the end of FY26, this number will increase to 65 per cent." Air India holds a 49 per cent market share on the top-five metro-to-metro routes. This comes amid increased customer satisfaction by 45 points in the last 18 months, with customer satisfaction on the new A350s is 100 percentage points (ppts) higher than legacy widebodies, at over 60. A demand for premium seats has been increasing steadily, with Air India seeing 2X growth in sales of premium seats over the last two years. Air India's Transformation Process Mr Wilson shared Air India's transformation plan and how they are in the process of expanding their fleet to increase their global footprint. He said that Air India has already doubled the number of flights it operated in the last three years. The legacy jets, Boeing 787-8, will undergo retrofit in July, which will be completed by the Financial Year 2026. The Air India CEO said, "13 of our legacy Boeing 777s are undergoing an interim 'heavy refresh', expected to be completed by end-2025. Full retrofit of these aircraft will happen in late 2026/2027." "We've increased the number of international destinations by about 25 per cent, whether it's Europe, North America, Australasia, East Asia, Middle East, we've already increased the footprint. But I think what we've seen, even with those net 100 aircraft joining, going from less than 100 aircraft to more than 300 aircraft, what we've seen is really just the beginning. Because the aircraft that we could bring in to drive that expansion were the ones that were already available in the market for immediate use," Mr Wilson said. "The 570 that we've purchased, which are being manufactured for us, will more than double the fleet from what we have... I think whether it's any of the geographies I've mentioned, Air India's global footprint is going to be much larger, and it should be. The size of the country, the growth rate of the economy, the increasing centrality of India in the international supply chain, the size of the diaspora, and the physical geography you have to bring people through India, not just to and from India," he added. "All of the winds are at India's back at the moment, and I think we're in a very exciting place and Air India is incredibly central to realising the opportunity of Indian aviation and making sure the benefits of that growth accrue on Indian soil and are benefiting Indian people," the airline's CEO said.
NDTV
06-05-2025
- NDTV
Delhi Bound Air India Flight Diverted Due To Clogged Toilets On May 2
New Delhi/ Mumbai: An Air India flight from Toronto to the national capital was diverted to Frankfurt on May 2 due to clogged lavatories, according to sources. When contacted, an Air India spokesperson said the flight was diverted due to a technical issue. The airline sources said flight AI188 had to be diverted to Frankfurt as some of the lavatories were unserviceable. This was at least the second instance in less than two months that an Air India wide body aircraft had to return mid-air due to clogged lavatories. On March 6, flight AI126 from Chicago to Delhi returned to the US city after being airborne for more than 10 hours due to the same issue. On May 2, flight AI188, operating non-stop from Toronto to Delhi, was diverted to Frankfurt due to a technical issue. "The flight was airborne from Frankfurt within a couple of hours and proceeded to its destination, Delhi," the Air India spokesperson said in a statement. The flight was operated with a Boeing 7770-337 (ER) aircraft as per information available on flight tracking website The aircraft was 15.8 years old, according to information from the website One of the sources said there are problems with Air India aircraft operating ultra-long haul routes due to the old fleet and passengers' behaviour. A majority of the wide body planes operating flights on the US and Canada routes are old due to which the plumbing issues keep cropping up. The pipes are old and interconnected, and whenever a waste tank gets choked, it blocks half of the lavatories of the aircraft. Generally, there are two waste tanks on a wide body plane to which these lavatory pipes are connected, the source added. Further, the source said that some passengers recklessly throwing garbage in the toilet also results in choking the system. Air India, on March 10, had issued a detailed statement about the air return of the Chicago-Delhi flight on March 6. About an hour and forty-five minutes into the flight, the crew reported some of the lavatories in Business and Economy Class to be unserviceable. "Subsequently, eight of the 12 lavatories in the aircraft became unserviceable, causing discomfort to all on board," the airline had said in the statement about flight AI126. At that time, the airline had also urged passengers to use "lavatories only for the purposes that they are meant for" and mentioned that previously, its teams had found objects like blankets, inner wear, and diapers, among other waste, having been flushed down the toilets on other flights.
Economic Times
06-05-2025
- Economic Times
Air India diverted Toronto-Delhi flight to Frankfurt due to clogged lavatories on May 2
An Air India flight from Toronto to the national capital was diverted to Frankfurt on May 2 due to clogged lavatories, according to sources. When contacted, an Air India spokesperson said the flight was diverted due to a technical issue. The airline sources said flight AI188 had to be diverted to Frankfurt as some of the lavatories were unserviceable. This was at least the second instance in less than two months that an Air India wide body aircraft had to return mid-air due to clogged lavatories. On March 6, flight AI126 from Chicago to Delhi returned to the US city after being airborne for more than 10 hours due to the same issue. On May 2, flight AI188, operating non-stop from Toronto to Delhi, was diverted to Frankfurt due to a technical issue. "The flight was airborne from Frankfurt within a couple of hours and proceeded to its destination, Delhi," the Air India spokesperson said in a statement. (Join our ETNRI WhatsApp channel for all the latest updates) The flight was operated with a Boeing 7770-337 (ER) aircraft as per information available on flight tracking website The aircraft was 15.8 years old, according to information from the website One of the sources said there are problems with Air India aircraft operating ultra-long haul routes due to the old fleet and passengers' behaviour. A majority of the wide body planes operating flights on the US and Canada routes are old due to which the plumbing issues keep cropping up. The pipes are old and interconnected, and whenever a waste tank gets choked, it blocks half of the lavatories of the aircraft. Generally, there are two waste tanks on a wide body plane to which these lavatory pipes are connected, the source added. Further, the source said that some passengers recklessly throwing garbage in the toilet also results in choking the system. Air India, on March 10, had issued a detailed statement about the air return of the Chicago-Delhi flight on March 6. About an hour and forty-five minutes into the flight, the crew reported some of the lavatories in Business and Economy Class to be unserviceable. "Subsequently, eight of the 12 lavatories in the aircraft became unserviceable, causing discomfort to all on board," the airline had said in the statement about flight AI126. At that time, the airline had also urged passengers to use "lavatories only for the purposes that they are meant for" and mentioned that previously, its teams had found objects like blankets, inner wear, and diapers, among other waste, having been flushed down the toilets on other flights.
Khaleej Times
22-03-2025
- Khaleej Times
Air India resumes operations 'as per schedule' at London Heathrow Airport after power outage
Air India on Saturday announced that its flights to and from London Heathrow (LHR) are back on schedule after a brief disruption caused by a power outage at the airport Friday. Sharing the post on X, the airline confirmed that today's flight AI111 departed on time, and all other flights to and from London are expected to operate as scheduled. Our operations to and from London Heathrow (LHR) have recommenced after the disruption at the airport yesterday due to a power outage. Today�s flight AI111 was on schedule and other flights, to and from London, are expected to operate as per schedule. AI161 of� � Air India (@airindia) March 22, 2025 "Our operations to and from London Heathrow (LHR) have recommenced after the disruption at the airport yesterday due to a power outage. Today's flight AI111 was on schedule and other flights, to and from London, are expected to operate as per schedule," the post stated. "AI161 of March 21, which was diverted to Frankfurt, is expected to leave Frankfurt at 2.05pm local time," it added. In another incident on March 5, an Air India flight from Chicago to Delhi was forced to return to its departure airport after multiple lavatories on board became unserviceable, as reported by the crew, due to clogged toilets caused by improper waste disposal. The investigation by the concerned authorities revealed that the lavatories became unserviceable as polythene bags, rags, and clothes were flushed down and got stuck in the plumbing. "We are aware of some social media posts about the unserviceable lavatories on AI126 operating Chicago to Delhi on March 5, 2025 that caused the flight's diversion back to its origin. We would like to confirm that as part of our investigation into the incident, our teams found polythene bags, rags, and clothes that had been flushed down and stuck in the plumbing. This led the lavatories to become unserviceable," Chicago O'Hare International Airport said. The airport authorities said that the flight departed on time at 1648 Hrs (UTC), and about an hour and forty-five minutes into the flight, the crew reported some of the lavatories in Business and Economy Class to be unserviceable. Subsequently, eight of the 12 lavatories in the aircraft became unserviceable, causing discomfort to all on board. By this time, the aircraft was overflying the Atlantic, leaving points in Europe as potential cities to divert to. However, it was decided to divert back to Chicago due to restrictions on night operations at most of the European airports. According to the authorities, the decision to divert was taken entirely in the interest of passenger comfort and safety.
