Go First Operations To Be Suspended At Delhi Airport For 2 Hours On April 1

Go First, a low-cost airline, will have its flights at the Delhi airport banned for two hours on April 1 as a result of a BCAS ruling about a security violation from September of last year. The airline's security programme will continue to be suspended on April 1 from 1200 to 1400 hours, according to a civil aviation ministry decision dated March 16. The carrier has also been urged to take appropriate action to lessen the impact of the suspension on the customers.

According to a senior ministry official, the suspension of the security programme means that there will be no flight operations and the latest directive is a kind of warning for the violation.

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On September 24, 2022, Go First's Delhi-Mumbai flight returned from the taxiway due to a technical snag. There were 95 passengers onboard and they were shifted to a parked aircraft by the airline's ferry buses, without permission/ intimation to the agencies concerned, including CISF, as per the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).

In September 2021, BCAS passed an order prohibiting ramp-to-ramp transfer of passengers as well as their baggage. Meanwhile, Go First submitted that the passengers were transferred through the terminal building for security check. BCAS concluded that there was a violation of its order passed in September 2021.

For violating its order, BCAS, on January 5, 2023, directed the airline to suspend its security programme from 0800 hours to 1700 hours on January 19. The regulator's order was kept on hold and the appeal of the airline was heard by the ministry on January 23.

Ruling on the matter, the ministry concluded that there was a violation but modified the BCAS order. The suspension of the security programme of the airline at Delhi airport will be in place for two hours on April 1, according to the order signed by civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal.

"It (order) shall be made effective on 01.04.2023 from 1200 hours to 1400 hours and as a consequential action, no operations shall be undertaken during the above-mentioned period," the secretary said. The carrier has also been directed to appropriately convey to the passengers or take other suitable action to minimise the impact of the suspension on the passengers.

With PTI Inputs