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India asks airlines to publish real-time information regarding delays, cancellations

Directorate General of Civil Aviation issues SOPs instructing airlines to provide advance information to passengers

India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on Monday, instructing all scheduled airlines to comply with it regarding flight delays and cancellations.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia held a meeting on Monday in which all government officials of his ministry, including DGCA, BCAS, and the Airport Authority of India (AAI), attended.

Scindia directed all the officials to work on being better prepared for such unprecedented incidents.

As per the SOPs, airlines shall be required to publish accurate real-time information regarding delays of their flights on the respective website of the airline and provide advance information to affected passengers by SMS, WhatsApp and email.

The civil aviation regulator, in its SOP, also mentioned that there should be display of updated information regarding flight delays for passengers waiting at airports.

"There should be appropriate sensitisation of the airline staff at the airports to suitably communicate with and continuously inform the passengers about flight delays," the SOP stated.

It also mentioned that in view of the prevalent fog season and adverse weather conditions, airlines may cancel, sufficiently in advance, such flights that are anticipated to be delayed or consequentially delayed on account of such conditions beyond a period of three hours with a view to obviate congestion at the airport and mitigate passenger inconvenience.

"All airlines shall mandatorily adhere to the above SOP with immediate effect," SOP stated.

On Sunday, a video went viral showing passengers sitting unfazed on the tarmac as the Indigo flight from Goa to Delhi was diverted to Mumbai. The airline issued a statement and apologised to the customers, assuring that it would take necessary steps to avoid any such instances in the future.

In the video, passengers were seen eating and sitting on the airport tarmac at Mumbai Airport.

Indigo Airline said in an official statement: "We are aware of the incident involving IndiGo flight 6E2195 from Goa to Delhi on January 14, 2024. The flight was diverted to Mumbai due to low visibility conditions in Delhi. We sincerely apologise to our customers and we are currently looking into the incident. We will take the necessary steps to avoid any such instances in the future."