Loss-making airlines in for a safety check

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has initiated an audit of maintenance procedures of major airlines to check whether the projected losses of Rs 10,000 crore this fiscal year are leading to a compromise on passenger safety.
“The DGCA tracks airline operations to make sure that safety stipulations are followed. The financial crisis now warrants a special effort to track safety measures not for negligence or oversight, but for shortfall of human resources, spares or maintenance,” a civil aviation ministry source said on condition of anonymity.
The audit will scrutinise availability of spares, timely maintenance and deployment of adequate number of engineers and technicians as well as try to capture the level of financial distress, especially situations that could endanger safety. For obvious reasons, airlines are not willing to discuss the DGCA audit. Safety rules for airline operations are laid out in black and white and there is no question of deviation, airline representatives said on condition of anonymity.
The DGCA had noticed recently that airlines were finding it difficult to borrow and cash management was becoming a challenge for many, the source said. The situation was getting serious and we had started getting cases of leasing companies getting in touch with the DGCA to take back their aircraft due to payment defaults, he added.
While the airlines are not on the verge of bankruptcy, many of them are finding it difficult to pay salaries to employees and clear dues of vendors. Aircraft maintenance and spares are expensive and the cost of human resources had gone up significantly during the boom period.
12/08/09 Faizan Khan & G Ganapathy Subramaniam/Economic Times

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Categories: Safety Aug 2009