DGCA mulls permit for Air Asia
The SC has issued a directive to maintain status-quo. Other airlines have objected to the DGCA’s move.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA) has begun examining Air Asia India’s application for a flying permit despite a Supreme Court directive asking the government to maintain status-quo until the final hearing on 5 March 2014.
“The Hon’ble Supreme Court has further directed that any action taken by the Government of India in the interim would be subject to any final orders passed by the court. The said order was passed in the presence of the Solicitor General for India and counsel representing AAIPL ( AirAsia India Pvt Ltd),” the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) stated in a letter dated 21 February to Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh and Director General of DGCA, Prabhat Kumar.
According to Ujjwal Dey, associate director, FIA, the association’s petition was attached with Subramanian Swamy’s petition in the Supreme Court. “FIA had filed a substantive petition, which was heard by the bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice A.K. Sikri together with Swamy’s petition in the Supreme Court on Friday,” he told The Sunday Guardian.
Dey, in his letter to both MoCA and DGCA, noted, “We hope that given the observations and directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, the Government/ DGCA would not take any action including grant of any permission or further approval to AAIPL or any other similar placed airline, so as to precipitate the matter any further prior to the final decision by the High Court on merits.”
It is important to note that the DGCA gave the final clearance to Tony Fernandez’s Air Asia India for a low cost airline. The aviation regulator has discarded the objections raised by the association and Rahul Bhatia’s budget carrier Indigo. “The committee had received 18 representations, out of which two were from FIA and Indigo. However, both these representations were received after the due date,” a senior DGCA official told the newspaper.
An examination of the application includes an inspection of the flight safety documentation system, certificate of airworthiness among others and ensuring that the airline has an adequate number of licensed flight crew, aircraft maintenance engineers and ground handling staff. However, DGCA is not allowed to carry out any such inspections until the final hearing in the Delhi High Court.