IndiGo, GoAir cancel 65 flights after DGCA grounds planes with faulty engines

IndiGo has cancelled 47 flights across its domestic network on March 13, the airline announced on its website.

Mumbai, March 13: Budget carriers IndiGo and GoAir cancelled as many as 65 flights today after the country's aviation regulator DGCA grounded 11 of their A320Neo planes with faulty Pratt & Whitney engines, causing severe inconvenience to hundreds of flyers.

The Gurugram-based IndiGo cancelled 47 of its 1,000-odd flights per day, the Wadia Group-promoted GoAir said it had cancelled 18 flights. GoAir has cancelled 18 flights originating from over eight cities, the airline said in a statement to PTI.

The flights that have been cancelled are from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Patna, Srinagar, Bhubaneswar, Amritsar, Srinagar and Guwahati, among others.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA) cracked the whip after an IndiGo flight bound for Lucknow returned to Ahmedabad within 40 minutes of its getting airborne due to a mid-air engine failure yesterday.

Citing safety of aircraft operations, the Director of the DGCA, in the March 12 order, said that A320 Neos fitted with PW1100 engines beyond ESN 450 have been grounded with immediate effect.

Three other IndiGo A320Neo planes have been on the ground since February following similar engine problems.

Yesterday, hundreds of passengers were stranded across the country as dozens of flights were cancelled by IndiGo and GoAir following the grounding of 11 planes. IndiGo operates about 1,000 flights daily.

IndiGo carries about 40 per cent of domestic flyers, while GoAir has a market share of around 10 per cent.

PTI