The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued a show cause notice to India’s low-cost airlines SpiceJet over its failure to establish a safe, efficient and reliable air service.

DGCA said, “Spicejet Ltd. has failed to establish safe, efficient and reliable air services under terms of Rule 134 and Schedule XI of the Aircraft Rules, 1937.”

This comes after two SpiceJet flights had to make priority landings after taking off in the same day having developed some technical snag.

It may be noted that there have been seven such incidents including the two instances of Tuesday in the last 17 days on SpiceJet flights.

The aviation regulatory body’s notice read, “The reported incidents on aircraft operated by Spicejet Ltd. from April 1, 2022, till date have been reviewed and it has been observed that on a number of occasions, the aircraft either turned back to its originating station or continued landing to the destination with degraded safety margins.”

Meanwhile, the Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday expressed concerns over recent incidents related to SpiceJet and said, “Passenger safety is paramount. Even the smallest error hindering safety will be thoroughly investigated and course-corrected.”

Citing the review which highlighted poor internal safety oversight and inadequate maintenance actions, DGCA said, “as most of the incidents are related to either component failure or system related failure) has resulted in degradation of the safety margins.”

A financial assessment carried out by DGCA in September 2021 had revealed that the “airline is operating on Cash and Carry and Suppliers/Approved Vendors are not being paid on regular basis leading to a shortage of spares and frequent invoking of minimum equipment list (MELS).”

DGCA has called top officials of SpiceJet as accountable for the above incidents.

The regulatory body said, “Hereby SpiceJet called upon to Show Cause within 3 weeks of receipt of this Notice as to why action should not be taken against the airline. In case no reply is received within the stipulated period, the matter will be proceeded ex-parte.”