Mumbai, June 21 -- Aviation regulator Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered Tata Group-owned Air India to remove its three officials, including a divisional vice president, from all roles and responsibilities related to crew scheduling and rostering over serious lapses.
In its order of June 20, the DGCA also directed the airline to initiate proceedings against these three officials without delay. The directive is among the sternest interventions in recent months involving a full-service scheduled airline.
Air India in a statement said it has acknowledged the regulator's directive and implemented the order.
"In the interim, the company's Chief Operations Officer will provide direct oversight to the Integrated Operations Control Centre (IOCC). Air India is committed to ensuring that there is total adherence to safety protocols and standard practices," the airline said in its statement on Saturday.
The IOCC is a key component in any airline's structure, responsible for real-time crew management, flight dispatch, weather monitoring, and route planning. Missteps or regulatory non-compliance at this level can directly affect passenger safety and crew welfare.
The DGCA order said: "Repeated and serious violations voluntarily disclosed by Air India concerning flight crew being scheduled and operated despite lapses in licensing, rest, and recency requirements. "These violations were discovered during the post-transition review from ARMS to the CAE Flight and Crew Management System."
ARMS (Air Route Management System) is the software platform used by the airline for various operational and management tasks, including crew rostering and flight planning, among others.
The voluntary disclosures, "while noted, point to systemic failures in crew scheduling, compliance monitoring, and internal accountability," the DGCA order said and flagged that "particular concern is the absence of strict disciplinary measures against key officials directly responsible for these operational lapses".
The regulator noted that these officials have been involved in "serious and repeated lapses including "unauthorised and non-compliant crew pairings, violation of mandatory licensing and recency norms and systemic failures in scheduling protocol and oversight".
The DGCA also warned Air India that future violations in crew scheduling will invite "strict action", including licence suspension and operational restrictions.
The latest direction from DGCA has come at a time when the airline has been under strict scrutiny in the aftermath of the London-bound Air India flight AI-171 operated by Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crash last week that claimed 242 lives, minutes after it took off from Ahmedabad airport.
All but one on board the plane died along with nearly 29 on the ground when the aircraft smashed into a medical complex shortly after take-off.
The DGCA has slapped a show-cause notice on Tata Group-owned Air India for violating flight duty time limitations (FDTL) norms for the crew.
These violations were found during the spot checks of the airline's Bengaluru-London flights of May 16 and 17, where in the FDTL had exceeded the 10-hour limit, as per the notice. "...during a spot check, it has been observed that the Accountable Manager of Air India operated two flights from Bangalore to London (Al133) on 16 May 2025 and 17 May 2025, both of which exceeded the stipulated flight time limit of 10 hours," the DGCA said in the notice, citing violation of Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR Section 7, Series J Part III).
Comments from Air India on the notice were awaited.
"It is further noted that the Accountable Manager of Air India Ltd has failed to ensure adherence to the provisions and compliance requirements...," the regulator said in the notice. The DGCA has asked Air India to explain within seven days why "action should not be taken for these violations, as per the notice."
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.