The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday issued a show cause notice for non-compliance with norms pertaining to facilities that are required to be provided to passengers. In order to ensure compliance of passenger-centric CARs, the aviation watchdog on Tuesday said it has been carrying out inspections of scheduled domestic airlines at various major airports on a continuing basis since May 2023. "In order to ensure compliance of passenger-centric CARS, the DGCA carried out inspections of scheduled domestic airlines at various major airports on a continuing basis since May 2023. During the inspections of the airlines, it was observed that Air India was not complying with the provisions of the relevant CAR. Accordingly, a show cause notice has been issued to Air India seeking their response for non-compliance to the provisions of the CAR," the DGCA said in a release.
The DGCA notice in the following:
There was no immediate comment from Air India about the show cause notice.
The DGCA also said it is imperative to continuously strengthen the rights of the passengers and ensure that the airline operates under harmonised conditions in line with the best global practices.
"It may be recalled that similar inspections had earlier been carried out at major airports last year also and on ground of similar non-compliance by Air India with the provisions of CAR on Denied Boarding of passengers, a penalty of Rs 10,00,000 was imposed on Air India for the violations," the aviation regulator added.
Domestic air passenger traffic has been rising in India, which is one of the fastest growing civil aviation markets in the world.
Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Ministry and the DGCA will reportedly look into a complaint against Air India, filed by a former senior pilot. The complaint stated that the carrier operated Boeing 777 planes to the US without meeting the requirements for the mandatory emergency oxygen supply, PTI reported.