Aircraft grounding: IndiGo, GoAir to cancel more than 600 flights

The grounding of planes due to engine malfunction have led IndiGo and GoAir to cancel around 620 flights this month. IndiGo has decided to cancel around 480; the rest are of Go Air. The airlines will give passengers an option to choose an alternate flight or get a full refund. IndiGo and GoAir cancelled around 70 and 55 flights on Wednesday and Thursday. The passengers who were affected were accommodated in another airline. "We have around 16 departure daily on Delhi-Mumbai route. If two flights are cancelled, we have a network to accommodate the passengers on other flights,” said a senior IndiGo official. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday grounded 11 Airbus A320 neo aircraft due to recurring malfunctions in their engines. Of the 11 aircraft, eight belong to IndiGo and three to GoAir. The malfunction has occurred with sub-population of engines manufactured by Pratt and Whitney (PW).

The problem stems from a component that can show early signs of wear and is located in an area that must withstand high pressure. According to the information given on airline's website, IndiGo has cancelled almost 488 flights from March 15 to March 31. IndiGo will not operate 36 flights between March 15 and March 21. Another 18 daily flights would remain cancelled between March 22 and March 24. Around 16 daily flights would remain cancelled between March 25 and March 31, according to the airline. This takes the total number of cancelled flights to 488 till March 31. GoAir has decided to cancel138 flights between March 15 and March 22, according to the airline. The revised schedule of Wadia group-promoted GoAir showed that the airline has cancelled seven daily flights to 10 destinations between March 16 and March 24, apart from cancelling six services per week between March 15 and March 22. A total of 138 flights stand cancelled. The airlines has mentioned that the passengers can choose for an alternate flight and also refund would be offered to the passengers. While an IndiGo spokesperson told PTI the airline follows all the guidelines according to the relevant provisions of the applicable regulations, to the same query, a GoAir spokesperson said, "We follow the process as specified by DGCA in its CAR (Civil Aviation Requirement). The same has also been published on our website." The DGCA stipulates certain norms to be followed in case of cancelled flights and in the current situation, the grounding of a total of 11 A320 neos, powered by faulty P&W engines have been done after the regulator's directive. While IndiGo and GoAir have a total of 45 A320 neo planes with P&W engines, 14 of them are on the ground.