Boeing 737 Max 8 plane grounding: A havoc-like situation can be seen at various airports of the country after the aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) announced grounding of all Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in India post 4 pm today. According to news agency PTI, the regulator, which on Tuesday, decided to immediately ground the aircraft amid global concerns following the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people, including four Indians.

This has created a panic among travellers who were fuming to hear about the cancellation of their flights at the last moment. Flyers were annoyed to learn that all Boeing 737 MAX operations will stop from/to all Indian airports till further notice. The move, though taken keeping safety of flyers in mind, will surely disrupt the aviation industry as flight cancellations and hike in flight ticket prices are expected to kick over in the next few days.

However, the Civil Aviation Ministry has asked SpiceJet and Jet Airways to come up with a full plan on how to accommodate passengers and deployed aircraft on the scheduled route, reported news agency ANI. The air carriers have also been asked to make sure that they do not take extra charges from the passengers.

It is being learnt that budget airline SpiceJet Ltd has cancelled all 14 Boeing aircraft in its fleet while Jet Airways (India) has cancelled five. “Safety and security of our passengers, crew and operations are of utmost importance to us and we will be working with the regulator and the manufacturer to attain normalcy in our operations,” SpiceJet said in its official statement.

As of now, there are no updates available on how these airlines will accommodate the passengers who were supposed to travel in these flights. The Civil Aviation Ministry will hold a meeting with airlines at 4 pm today to prepare a contingency plan as a number of flights have been cancelled following the grounding of Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft.

Boeing has witnessed global isolation as not just India but other countries including Malaysia, France, Germany, Newzealand, Turkey, China, Norway and etc have also grounded the MAX 8 aircraft.