NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has levied a penalty of Air India Rs 30 lakh for a first officer operating a flight without the mandatory recency requirements. In its Jan 29, 2025, order, the regulator has slammed AI’s rostering system that led to this lapse. The airline has been directed to act against three senior officials of the rostering department and inform it about the same in 15 days.
A first officer “operated a flight on July 7 despite not having the mandatory recency requirement of three takeoff and landings, leading to violation of (rules).The (rostering) controllers overlooked multiple spurious alerts reflecting on CAE window, as per the submission made by Air India Limited vide e-mail on July 12, 2024,” the AI order says.
The DGCA had issued a show cause to AI heads of operations and rostering on Dec 13. Their reply was found “unsatisfactory” following which the order was issued on Jan 29, asking AI to deposit the penalty amount of Rs 30 lakh within thirty days.
The regulator has fined several airlines, including AI, in the past few months.
