For safety, DGCA asks airlines about financial health

New Delhi: Worried over the poor health of Indian carriers, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has shot off a detailed questionnaire to airlines for gauging their financial stability, a move aimed at ascertaining aircraft maintenance and passenger safety.
The first of its kind exercise asks airlines if they have seen a "significant or sudden" fleet reduction and if their flight cancellations and delays have increased in recent past. "Based on the responses from airlines, we may do an internal and informal ranking of airlines. The carriers that figure low on the financial stability checklist will have to face more than routine checks on aircraft as we will not tolerate any compromise on air safety," said highly placed sources.
The government's worry stems from the fact that loss-making carriers are now finding it difficult to get loans from banks due to a perceived poor capacity of the ailing industry to pay back. As a result, despite cutting fleet sizes there have been several instances of airlines taking parts from grounded planes to keep the remaining ones flying.
The DGCA has asked airlines if they are deferring capital expenditure and training of personnel. The questionnaire also asks if airlines have sold assets to raise funds. "Since there has been trouble with airports, oil companies and several other service providers, airlines have been asked to detail if they have lost suppliers due to any factor like non payment. This will be used to determine financial stability of airlines," said sources.
Airlines have also been told to give details of the relationship between operator and employees, a clear attempt to gauge unrest, if any, due to huge salary cuts, delayed payments and training programmes.
14/05/09 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General May 2009, Safety May 2009