DGCA to make foreign airlines more accountable

New Delhi: Buoyed by the success of making on-time performance (OTP) of domestic airlines public in terms of forcing carriers to stick to schedule, the government has now decided to extend this to foreign carriers flying in and out of India as well. Apart from OTP, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has decided to bring foreign carriers’ under scanner on two more counts — number of flights cancelled and safety issues of aircraft maintenance.
The fear of people choosing more reliable airlines in terms of flights taking off and landing on time has forced the airlines to improve their performance. ‘‘Certainly, there are constraints of infrastructure at the busy Mumbai airport and long taxiing time in Delhi, but not all delays can be blamed on these two factors as airlines can do a lot to cut delays. For instance, one regional airlines OTP went up from first survey’s 26% in February-end to 67% in June. So we decided to extend this OTP study to foreign carriers also,’’ said a senior official.
The aviation ministry is also going to monitor the frequent cancellations of flights by foreign carriers that leads to long delays.
15/07/09 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Foreign Jul 2009