Govt cracks the whip on Air India

NEW DELHI: After a streak of flight delays and cancellations by Air India, the government has come down hard on the airline and threatened strict action. Six international flight of Air India were delayed and cancelled in the past two days after technical glitches and flight duty time restrictions (FDTR) of the crew forced massive delays and several international circuits — London, New York, Birmingham, Toronto, Dubai, Bangkok and Muscat — were affected.

Civil aviation minister Praful Patel took stock of the situation on Monday and threatened strict action against those found responsible for the lapses.

“There have been complaints of slack service in the past and now with such frequent delays ‘strong corrective action’ would be taken. Responsibilities will be fixed on all AI staffers who were on duty during that period and other technical issues will also be examined,” said a senior official of the ministry of civil aviation