The Director General of Civil Aviation on Friday lifted its restrictions on private carrier SpiceJet, allowing the airline to operate its entire fleet from October 30, reported the Hindustan Times.
The aviation regulator had ordered on July 27 that SpiceJet can only operate at 50% of its 4,192 planes for eight weeks after several of the aircraft showed technical malfunction. On September 27, the ban was extended till October 29.
The restrictions were extended after the aviation regulator noted that there has been an “appreciable reduction” in the number of safety incidents, but it decided to extend the restriction “as a matter of abundant caution”.
During the restriction period, on September 1, a SpiceJet flight from Delhi to Nashik had returned midway to the national capital due to an autopilot snag. On October 12 too, a SpiceJet aircraft had made an emergency landing in Hyderabad after detecting smoke in the cabin and the cockpit, reported NDTV.
On July 5, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation had issued a show cause notice to the airline following eight instances of technical malfunction in a period of 18 days. The regulator had asked the airline to explain the “degradation of its safety margins”.
The civil aviation regulator did not find any major safety violations during spot checks in SpiceJet aircraft, the Centre had told Parliament on July 25. Two days later, the restriction on 50% of SpiceJet flights was imposed.
SpiceJet is also struggling to make timely payments to its employees who had earlier alleged delay in disbursal of salaries. The budget airline had said September 20 that it has sent 80 of its pilots on leave without pay for three months.
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