Question : Cancellation of Flights by Airlines

(a) whether many airlines both public and private cancelled various flights in the last minutes on the same day in the recent past and if so, the details thereof;

(b) the reasons for cancelling all the flights without prior notice at the last moment;

(c) whether the Government has issued any notices/ warning letters to airlines like IndiGo and GoAir regarding bulk cancellation of their flights due to technical faults in recent past and if so, the details thereof;

(d) if not, the reasons therefor, for not sending any notices so far;

(e) the reasons for not cancelling their licenses until they become technically perfect;

(f) the total number of flights cancelled during the last one month, airlines-wise and sector-wise; and

(g) the alternative measures taken by the concerned airlines to mitigate the problems faced by the passengers who booked the flight tickets in advance?

The Minister of State in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION
(Shri Jayant Sinha)

(a) & (b): No such data is maintained by this Ministry. However, as a part of submission of monthly traffic data in Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) by the scheduled domestic airlines, the overall cancellation rate for the month of January 2018 has been 1.26%. The various reason for the cancellation and their attribution are as follow:
Operational- 3.4%
Technical -13.2%
Weather- 41.3%
Commercial - 0.8%
Consequential & Miscellaneous- 41.4%

(c) to (e): No such notice has been issued by DGCA. However, in view of few occurrences of aborted take-off and In-flight Shut Down (IFSD) happening on A320neo fleet Worldwide fitted with PW 1100 engines,11 A320neos of Indigo and 03 A320neos of Go Air were grounded by DGCA, keeping in view the safety of aircraft operations. Both the airlines accommodated the affected passengers on their existing flights and offered refund to those who did not wish to travel.

(f): Airlines- wise details in respect of numbers of flight cancelled, for the month of January 2018, as submitted by the airlines as a part of monthly submission of traffic data are given below:
Zoom Air - 23
Air Deccan- 12
Indigo - 556
Air India - 190
Jet Lite - 27
Jet Airways - 105
Spice Jet - 62
Vistara -15
Trujet - 03
Go Air- 33
Air Asia - 06;
Total=1032
Total flights scheduled for above airlines during the month of January-2018 is 82088. Cancellation as percentage of scheduled flights is 1.26%. Sector wise cancellation data is not maintained.

(g): Both Indigo & Go Air have informed that they have taken appropriate steps to either accommodate the affected passengers in their existing fleet or process the refund, if the passengers desired so.
Further, in accordance with the Civil Aviation Requirement Section 3, Series M, Part IV, issued by DGCA, airline are required to facilitate or compensate the passenger in the event of cancellation. As submitted by the airlines, as a part of monthly Submission of traffic data, in the month of January 2018, 17425 passengers were affected due to cancellation and Rs. 55.66 lakhs were incurred by the airlines towards facilities & compensation, which includes refunds rescheduling, providing refreshments, hotel accommodation & compensation etc.