In the third penalty imposed on an Indian airline by the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in almost a week (8 days to be more specific), a fine of Rs 10 lakh has been slapped on the low-cost carrier Go First.
Earlier this month on Jan 9, a Go First flight scheduled to fly from Bengaluru airport to Delhi, left behind 55 passengers stranded at the Bengaluru airport, on account of improper communication and coordination between terminal coordinator, the flight crew and commercial staff of the airline.
However, the statutory body DGCA has issued a statement on the incident and blamed Go First to have “failed to ensure adequate arrangement for ground handling”.
The Go First flight G8-116 took off for Delhi from the Bengaluru airport on Monday, Jan 9 at 6:30 am, stranding behind 55 passengers in a shuttle bus.
On this incident, DGCA issued a statement, saying, “The airline failed to ensure adequate arrangement for ground handling, preparation of load and trim sheet, flight dispatch and passenger/cargo handling and therefore, enforcement action in the form of Financial Penalty of Rs 10 lakh has been imposed for violation of CAR (civil aviation requirement).”
The airline released an apology the very next day after the incident, derostering the staff involved in the incident.
In the incident report sent by the low-cost airline to the aviation regulator on January 25, Go First said, “Perusal of reply of Go First reveals that there was improper communication, coordination between terminal coordinator (TC), commercial staff and crew regarding boarding of passengers in the aircraft.”
The airline announced one free ticket to all the affected passengers, for travel on any domestic sector in the next 12 months.
It also apologized for the incident, stating that it was caused due to an ‘inadvertent oversight’, adding that passengers were accommodated on alternate airlines to Delhi and onward to other destinations.
