Can cancel flight if delay exceeds 3 hours: DGCA
New Delhi, January 15
Amid severe and persisting weather-related air traffic disruption, the aviation regulator on Monday issued new rules permitting airlines to cancel flights anticipated to be delayed by three hours or more.
Fog delays 100 flights
New Delhi: Five flights were diverted and more than 100 flights were delayed at the IGI Airport on Monday morning due to adverse weather conditions, according to an official. TNS
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Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia instructed Delhi airport to open CAT III-compliant runway (currently closed for maintenance) at the earliest. CAT-III compliance aids flight operations in low visibility conditions. Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi has four runways, of which three are operational and one CAT III-compliant runway is closed. Of the three operational, one is CAT-III compliant
“In view of the prevalent fog season and adverse weather conditions, airlines may cancel, sufficiently in advance, such flights that are anticipated to be delayed or consequentially delayed on account of such conditions beyond a period of three hours with a view to obviating congestion at the airport and mitigating passenger inconvenience,” the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a new standard operating procedure hours after over hundred flights were delayed and five diverted at the Delhi airport due to poor weather conditions. The SOP came as a passenger on an IndiGo flight was arrested after he assaulted a pilot when he was making an announcement regarding a delay in take-off at the Delhi airport, the police said on Monday.
A purported video of the incident, which took place on Sunday, went viral on social media and showed passenger Sahil Katariya throwing a punch at co-pilot Anup Kumar while he was making an announcement inside the Goa-bound flight. The passenger’s ire was apparently stoked by a delay of over 10 hours due to dense fog and unpreparedness of the aviation authorities to deal with the situation.
Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said such behaviour was “unacceptable” and assured that the DGCA would issue SOP for airlines on better communication and minimisation of passenger discomfort due to flight cancellations and delays.
The DGCA later said all airlines shall mandatorily adhere to the new SOP with immediate effect.
The new SOP says airlines shall be required to publish accurate real-time information regarding delays of their flights on website; through advance information to affected passengers by SMS/ WhatsApp and email; through display of updated information regarding flight delays to passengers waiting at the airports and sensitisation of the airline staff at airports to suitably inform the passengers about flight delays.
Referring to Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) Section-3, which airlines are to publish mandatorily, the DGCA said the CAR was not applicable in case of extreme weather-induced conditions.
