Fares fly high as planes grounded

Fares fly high as planes grounded

1. Air fares has increased causing inconvenience to passengers. The rise in air fares has been due to demand and supply gap after a large number of aircrafts were grounded due to variety of reason such as a) safety precaution, b) maintenance issues, c) financial crisis of airlines, and, d) shortage of pilots.
2. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has had recently decided to ground Boeing 737 Max 8 planes till appropriate modifications and safety measures are taken. The decision came in the backdrop of the recent Ethiopian Airlines crash. After DGCA’s notification, Spice jet, an airlines has grounded 12 Boeing 737 Max 8 planes.
3. Recently, DGCA have issued safety guidelines for the operation of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. These include: (a) Pilots should have at least 1,000 hours of flying experience to command these planes (b) engineering departments have been instructed not to release the planes for operations in case of dual failure of autopilot, faults in spoiler system and (c) stringent checks of the aircraft’s autopilot and stall management systems during long-transit stays.
4. DGCA is the regulatory body in the field of Civil Aviation primarily dealing with safety issues.