On May 1, a turbulent landing of around 40 passengers and crew on a Mumbai to Durgapur flight resulted in minor injuries. Two days later, an engine failure on a SpiceJet flight did not allow it to take off from Mumbai. On the same day, a flight was forced to return to Chennai after one of the aircraft’s engines shut down. On 19 June, a Patna-Delhi flight returned to Patna when one of the aircraft’s engines caught fire following a bird strike. The latest incident happened on July 5, when a plane’s fuel indicator failed mid-air, forcing a Delhi-Dubai flight to land in Karachi.
Taking note of these developments, the air safety regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, DGCA has issued a show cause notice to the airline, explaining why it failed to “establish a safe, efficient and reliable air service”. . The notice said the incidents pointed to poor internal security oversight and inadequate maintenance action.
Confirming that the airline is “receiving DGCA notices and will respond within the specified time period”, an airline spokesperson said the carrier, “is committed to ensuring a safe operation for our passengers and crew. We are an IATA-IOSA certified airline. SpiceJet successfully completed the meticulous audit program for re-certification in October 2021. We have been regularly audited by DGCA. All our aircraft were audited by the regulator a month back and Was found safe. All SpiceJet flights are conducted in compliance with the applicable rules of DGCA Civil Aviation Regulations on the subject.”
If viewed as separate events, they can be classified as regular. But given the financial position of the airline, and in particular the wording of the DGCA notice, there are bound to be red flags raised. Its auditors have repeatedly stated that the airline is not a running entity.
The airline reported profit of 23.28 crore in February for the quarter ended December 31, 2021 despite one-time settlement 77.46 crore outstanding dues which were under litigation. The airline had earlier reported losses every seven quarters.
It would, therefore, not be surprising if an investigation by a competent authority reveals that SpiceJet’s financial problems have put its operations on hold. As mentioned in the DGCA notice, the cash and carry basis and the paucity of spares, inevitably put pressure on the maintenance teams, as they attempt to fly a full schedule. An airline only makes money when its airplanes are in the air and there is use of the aircraft which translates to a return on assets. This is an important consideration for any airline.
Maintenance is inherently a cost driver for airlines and thus, financial stress inevitably finds its way to operational challenges. It has been seen time and again around the world.
Ideally, if an airline is unable to maintain its aircraft well, it should reduce its operations. Flying aircraft that are not technically in good health is a dangerous proposition. Therefore, SpiceJet is in a catch-22 situation: it needs full aircraft utilization to make money, but its financial constraints may limit its ability to do so by impacting its aircraft maintenance expenses at the same time.
So SpiceJet needs to conduct a forensic audit of its engineering department. Let’s say an airline has 10 aircraft, and is operating at a peak operating hours of 14 to 15 hours a day, what becomes important from a maintenance point of view is how much time gap it is leaving between flights. Is. In other words, if an aircraft is being used for 14 hours a day, how much of the remaining 10 hours a day is being spent on maintenance? SpiceJet needs to audit it.
The DGCA notice indicates the possibility of safety oversight and inadequate maintenance issues. More details will emerge once the airline sends its response to the regulator’s notice.
Repeated failures of the same system, such as repeated incidents of pressure failure and engine failure, or the same system failing again after repair, affect aircraft safety and suggest that the inspections were accurate, that the maintenance was poor and not repaired. Up to the mark or the system needs to be replaced entirely, all of which requires an airline to spend money.
Globally, a process is followed for aircraft maintenance that includes a well-stocked spare part inventory and an adequate number of trained and qualified engineers. When finances are inadequate, corners are likely to be cut.
The Minimum Equipment List of an aircraft, which is a robust document approved by the DGCA, allows pending repairs to be carried forward from a few hours to a few days, depending on the severity of the operations affected in flying an aircraft.
If the malfunctions are ignored for a long time, then serious issues like those seen in SpiceJet aircraft, cabin fire, engine failure and so on are to be expected.
Incidentally, in April this year, the DGCA barred 90 SpiceJet pilots of MAX aircraft from flying until they were properly trained on the MAX simulator. However, this restriction did not affect Max’s operations by the airline, as it had sufficiently trained pilots to operate that type of aircraft.