DGCA suspends ops of wide-bodied aircraft at Kozhikode airport during monsoon season

Less than a week after the mishap involving an Air India Express aircraft at Kozhikode that killed 18 people, including two pilots, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has temporarily suspended operations of wide-bodied aircraft at the airport for the duration of the monsoon season.

“As a matter of abundant caution, we have decided to divert them (wide-bodied aircraft) to neighboring airports during the monsoon,” a senior DGCA official told The Indian Express.

Currently, while scheduled international operations — that mainly see operations of wide-bodied airliners — are suspended due to Covid-19, special repatriation flights are being operated by both Indian and foreign carriers. It is mainly airlines from west Asia that are flying the larger dual-aisle planes to Kozhikode.