The routine stress faced by airline passengers—chronic delays, patchy customer service, and the occasional safety scare—is well documented. Consider this: on April 16, a SpiceJet Boeing 737 taxiing at Delhi airport struck a stationary Akasa Air aircraft, damaging its winglet and the horizontal stabiliser of the Akasa plane.
Two months earlier, two planes carrying passengers—an Air India jet and an IndiGo flight—were involved in a minor collision at Mumbai airport when the right wing tips of the two aircraft scraped against each other. India’s aviation sector has been in prolonged turbulence. The Air India crash in June 2025, which killed 260 people, remains a grim reminder of the industry’s vulnerabilities.
It is not as if the government is unaware. A 2026 report by a Parliamentary Standing Committee revealed that 377 of 754 commercial aircraft—nearly half—recorded recurring technical defects between January 2025 and February 2026. IndiGo topped the list: of the 405 aircraft examined, 148 had recurring issues.
Meanwhile, 191 of the 267 aircraft operated by Air India and Air India Express were found to have persistent technical problems. The report also flagged around 100 safety lapses, including seven Level 1 violations requiring immediate corrective action. Yet the crisis runs deeper than faulty aircraft.
The industry is grappling with staff shortages, violations of flight duty time norms, lapses in quality assurance, unauthorised cockpit access, and even instances of aircraft operating with expired emergency equipment. The chaos at IndiGo counters last December exposed these systemic weaknesses.
21/04/2026 Financial Express
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