'3,400 Air India flights cancelled in December 2014 due to indiscipline, staff shortage'

Over 3,400 flights of different airlines including Air India were cancelled in December last year alone, with the Government today attributing this to "indiscipline" among their staff and crew shortage. During this month, 3,644 flights including 2,808 of Spicejet were cancelled, a problem which the Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said has to be addressed unitedly and "we will do it". "There is a lot of indiscipline besides shortage of staff and we are trying to get out of this. ... We want to ensure performace of the airlines is good," he said while replying to a spate of questions during the Question Hour in Rajya Sabha.

While 317 flights of Jet Airways-JetLite were cancelled, 232 of Air India and 224 of IndiGo were also cancelled. 53 flights of GoAir and ten of AisAsia India too were cancelled, according to official figures. Not satisfied with his reply, members sought to know whether there was any provision to penalise the airlines and compensate the passengers and whether the Government was contemplating action against these airlines.

Seeking to allay the concerns of members over abrupt flight cancellations and delays, the Minister said the Director General of Civil Aviation has issued guidelines to be followed by the airlines in case of cancellations and delays and these were uniform for everyone. He also said scheduled airlines operate their flights as per approved schedule, but at times, these services were cancelled due to technical, operational, commercial and weather related issues.

Some members from Kerala also rued the cancellation of delays in scheduled flights to Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi and demanded reintroduction of services and punctuality in operation.