DGCA puts SpiceJet under ‘enhanced surveillance’, orders airline to operate half of allowed flights this summer

NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday ordered SpiceJet to operate a truncated schedule — half of the allowed fights — this summer. The airline has also been put under “enhanced surveillance” for 8 weeks.
The cash-strapped airline will be allowed to scale up operations only after proving that it has “sufficient, technical support and financial resource to safely and efficiently undertake such enhanced capacity.”
The aviation regulator issued an interim order on Wednesday on the showcase notice it had issued to the airline on July 5 and after receiving its comments on the same within the given three weeks.
SpiceJet anyway has been operating about 300 flights daily in past few weeks which is half of the approved weekly 4,100-odd flights. So this order may have no impact on the airline operationally, apart from planes that are being subjected to stricter checks.