The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India’s aviation regulator, ordered the low-cost Indian carrier to operate no more than 50% of its flights for an eight-week period on July 27.
The orders to limit the flights approved for the summer schedule were issued in response to various reports of technical difficulties and emergency landings over the previous few months.
A SpiceJet spokesperson said on July 28 that the DGCA’s order has no effect on the airline’s flight operations despite the agency recently conducting spot checks on 48 aircraft and issuing the same directive.
“All SpiceJet flights departed on time, as per schedule today morning. There were no flight cancellations. There has been absolutely no impact on our schedule following yesterday’s order by the regulator. This has been possible as SpiceJet, like other airlines, had already rescheduled its flight operations due to the current lean travel season,” said a SpiceJet spokesperson.
“We would like to once again reassure our passengers and travel partners that our flights will operate as per schedule in the coming days and weeks. SpiceJet is confident of scaling up its operations and addressing any concern the regulator may have on priority,” SpiceJet added.
SpiceJet’s planes were involved in at least eight incidents of technical malfunction between June 19 and July 5 which the DGCA on July 6 issued a show cause notice to the airline.
“In light of the findings of various spot checks, inspections, and the response to the show cause notice submitted by SpiceJet, the number of departures of SpiceJet is hereby restricted to 50% of the number of departures approved under summer schedule 2022 for an eight-week period,” said the aviation regulator’s order on Wednesday.