At least 65 flights cancelled after grounding of aircraft

A day after aviation regulator grounded its 11 aircraft fitted with faulty Pratt & Whitney engines, no-frills carrier IndiGo and GoAir on Tuesday cancelled at least 65 flights putting in peril the travel schedule of hundreds of fliers.

While IndiGo has cancelled 47 of its around 1,000 flights per day, GoAir said it cancelled 18 services.

On Monday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordering the immediate grounding of eight A320 neo planes of IndiGo and three of GoAir that are powered with faulty Pratt & Whitney engines. Altogether 14 -- 11 of IndiGo and three of GoAir -- have been grounded.

Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu said the decision to ground these aircraft is "only for passenger safety" while expressing hope that airlines would restore the flights as soon as possible. "They would like to restore the flights as soon as possible by making alternative arrangements. But we cannot play with any issue related to safety and safety is paramount," he told reporters.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said 43 such engines are there worldwide and out of which 19 are in India. "We do not consider this safe and technical analysis is underway. These engines can be used only when we consider it safe," he said.

GoAir has announced curtailing services from eight cities, IndiGo said some of its flights from cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Patna, Srinagar, Bhubaneswar, Amritsar, Srinagar and Guwahati have been taken off due to the grounding of its flights.

In a statement, IndiGo said all affected passengers have been given the option to either choose another flight at no additional cost or cancel their booking and get a full refund without any cancellation charges.

"While we understand that this may cause inconvenience to some of our passengers, given that we have multiple flights to the same destination, we are proactively re-accommodating all our affected passengers on other flights," it said.

On Monday also, travel plans of hundreds of passengers went haywire after the DGCA ordered the grounding of these planes. IndiGo carries about 40% of domestic flyers while GoAir has a market share of around 10%.

The DGCA has said, "keeping in the safety of aircraft operations, A320 neos fitted with PW1100 engines beyond ESN 450 have been grounded with immediate effect. Both IndiGo and GoAir have been told not to refit these engines, which are spare with them in their inventory."

The Pratt & Whitney has assured that all the affected engines will be replaced by early June this year. In February, three planes were grounded following the same problem.