DGCA asks Kingfisher to submit fresh Action Plan

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked Kingfisher Airline to submit a new action plan for its flight operation.

At the same time the aviation regulator has announced a new policy for slots allocation for all airlines. From now airlines will be disallowed allocation of slots on the basis of anticipated delivery of aircraft.

The Director-General, Mr E.K. Bharat Bhushan, told

Business Line , “Kingfisher has replied to the show case notice. It says 30 planes will go for reconfiguration over next 3 months.” The airline has assured that not more than 3 planes will be out of service at a time.

Even if three planes are taken out from the schedule, about 24 flights a day would need to be cancelled. So, the schedule will be disturbed at least for next four months.

In the mean time, the aviation regulator has also received response from Indigo and SpiceJet. Both were issued notices on Thursday evening for not operating flights as approved for the winter schedule. “We have reworked the slot policy,” Mr Bharat Bhushan said.

Once an airline has everything ready, only then it can be given slots. Now any airline can ask for the slot, freed because of non utilisation by Kingfisher, Indigo and SpiceJet, Mr Bharat Bhushan added.

>Shishir.s@thehindu.co.in