Acting tough on erring airlines, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered SpiceJet to refund fares of passengers on a delayed Mumbai-Delhi flight last month.
The regulator’s action comes after its investigation into a passenger’s complaint that the airlines even charged forfood on the flight delayed for several hours, which it had asked to refund with the fare.
Reacting to the order, a spokesperson for the airline said: “SpiceJet, like most airlines, serves food on the ground during the delay in cases like this, and we will be responding shortly to DGCA.”
On June 16, SpiceJet's Boeing 737-800 aircraft with 172 passengers on board, including two infants, experienced technical difficulties, prompting the pilots to abort takeoff and return to the bay. Passengers were eventually flown on a second flight nearly five hours later.
The DGCA found in its investigation that the flight experienced technical snags twice on account of ‘leading edge flap transit light’ and rejected take-off due to ‘take-off configuration’ warning. The regulator found that the airline contravened Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) rules and sold food and beverages in the flight for the duration of the delay in Mumbai.
CAR rules state that airlines should provide free food in the event of cancellations or delay of flights for more than two hours. According to sources, the airport manager and cabin crew told DGCA that they were not aware of the CAR rules, following which the regulator asked SpiceJet to train their crew and ground handling staff on the requirements.