The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has tried to soothe public anxiety over Jet Airways’ condition by saying that it had cleared the airline’s schedule involving 41 aircraft for 603 domestic and 382 international flights a week. It, however, warned that “it is a dynamic situation and there may be further attrition in coming weeks.”
The DGCA statement was probably in response to a tweet by Suresh Prabhu, Minister for Civil Aviation in which he directed “the Ministry of Civil Aviation to hold an emergency meeting on the grounding of flights by Jet Airways. Advance booking, cancellation, refunds and safety issues if any. Asked him to get a report on Jet compliance issues from the DGCA.”
There has been an almost 71 per cent drop in Jet’s weekly flight schedule as compared to its heyday when, according to industry watchers, the airline operated over 2,100 services a week on its domestic network. The airline’s fleet has seen a 65 per cent decline from over 119 aircraft that it had earlier to the present strength of 41 aircraft.
