Tag Archives: DGCA

A Madurai couple took their wedding to the next level, when they booked an entire chartered flight from Madurai to Bengaluru and tie the knot mid-air. The couple, along with their families, relatives and guests were on the SpiceJet chartered flight, reveal photos and videos of the wedding that went viral online. Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has launched an inquiry into the mid-air ceremony.

Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DCGA) has approved 60 per cent of the capacity for Indian scheduled operators as directed by MoCA. As many as 12,983 departures per week have been finalised covering 95 airports for the domestic winter schedule effective from 25 October 2020 to 27 March 2021, down by 44.3 per cent from 23,307 departures per week in winter 2019-20.

A total of 39.43 lakh domestic passengers travelled by air in September this year, 66 per cent lower than the corresponding period last year, the country’s aviation regulator DGCA said on Wednesday. As many as 21.07 lakh and 28.32 lakh people travelled by air domestically this July and August, respectively, the regulator had said last month.

In response to a PIL, DGCA has specified that if an airline has already received ticket money from an agent but the agent has not received the same from the passenger, on cancellation, the credit shell can be utilised by the passenger up to March 31, 2021, where the passenger needs to pay the agent. If credit shell is unutilised till said date, the airline will refund the agent. The affidavit clarifies, “If the tour operator has already paid the money to the airline for purchasing the ticket for the client but the client is yet to pay that money to the agent, then on cancellation of ticket and converting it in to credit shell, the ticket will remain in the name of passenger and in case passenger utilises the credit shell he will pay to the agent and not to the airline. However, in case the passenger does not utilise the credit shell till 31st Mar 2021, then the airline will have to refund the amount as per proposed formulation and money will go back to same account of the agent from which the ticket amount was paid to the airline.” Additionally, “In case the passenger in whose name the ticket is booked does not utilise the Credit Shell till 31st March 2021, then the airline will have to refund the amount with interest prescribed in the formulation to the agent from whose account the ticket was booked.” The affidavit also states: (i) for passengers who have booked tickets prior to lockdown for travel upto May 24, 2020, refund of fares to the passengers covered under this category shall be governed by the proposed formulation related to credit shell …

Terming non-refund of tickets booked during lockdown and the creation of an involuntary credit shell by airlines as violation of the civil aviation requirements and provisions of the Aircraft Rules of 1937, DGCA has informed the Supreme Court that tickets booked on both domestic and international carriers for air travel between March 25 to May 3 this year will be fully refunded.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has initiated a safety audit of all the airports affected by the monsoons and of airlines in a phased manner, starting with Air India and SpiceJet, in the wake of the recent crash in Kozhikode. The aviation body said in a statement, “DGCA has started the safety audit of airlines and 12 airports affected by the monsoon, as of now. Audit of airlines to be done in a phased manner, beginning with Air India and Spice Jet.”

AirAsia India has become the most punctual airline for the month of July 2020 with an OTP of 98.1%, according to statistics released by DGCA for domestic airlines. Air Asia is followed by IndiGo (97.6%), Vistara (95.9%), SpiceJet (93.2%), Go Air (91.3%) and Air India (89.3%)

A report by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for June shows that 78.5% of complaints from passengers were regarding refunds. It added that 62% flights were cancelled due to commercial reasons (low load, clubbing of flights). The most complaints in June were against Air India, followed by TruJet and SpiceJet.

With the nationwide lockdown extended to May 3, DGCA, under the directive of Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), has instructed all airlines to refund passengers full amount collected (without levying cancellation charge) within a period of three weeks from the date of request of cancellation of ticket. This applies to all tickets booked between March 25 and April 14 (referred to as the first lockdown period) for travel between March 25 and May 3, 2020, for both domestic and international air travel. The refund, however, applies only to those payments received by the airline during the first lockdown period.

According to the latest data provided by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), passengers carried by domestic airlines during Jan-Feb 2020 were 251.50 lakh as against 238.56 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year, thereby registering annual growth of 5.42 per cent and monthly growth of 8.98 per cent. The passenger load factor in the month of February 2020 also saw an increasing trend primarily due to airlines offering promotional fares resulting in increased demand.