New Delhi, January 30
The Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA) today penalised three private airlines by withdrawing their six landing slots at the Delhi airport for not using pilots trained to land in foggy conditions and not providing aircraft with mandatory devices.

The slots, two each of IndiGo, GoAir and Jet Airways, were withdrawn after the flights had to be diverted due to fog. These include Jet Airways 9W-2452 and 9W-2794, GoAir G8-343 and G8-164 and IndiGo 6E-024 and 6E-316.

The DGCA said on January 29 visibility at the Indira Gandhi International airport started dropping rapidly after 1730 hrs and the matter was brought to the notice of all airlines.

"The DGCA has been in continuous touch with airlines to ensure deployment of CAT III compliant aircraft and CAT III trained crew in foggy conditions. Despite repeated efforts, two flights each of Jet Airways, Go Air and IndiGo were diverted from Delhi to Jaipur," a statement issued by the Civil Aviation Ministry said.

The DGCA had warned the airlines that they would be stopped from operating in and out of Delhi during foggy season if they did not deploy CAT III trained crew to operate flights.

Officials said the AAI informed that one of the flight crew on the said flights was not CAT III trained. Thus, the above mentioned airlines violated the provisions of Para 10.18 of CAR Section 3, Series C, Part II and Para 14 of AIC 11 of 2009. "The DGCA viewed it very seriously that instructions issued from time to time were not adhered to by the airlines," the statement said.

At a meeting between the airlines and the regulator in the first week of this month, the DGCA had fixed the responsibility of the airlines to get the latest weather updates and ensure that CAT-III trained crew was deployed.