Government directs aviation secy to hold emergency meet as Jet Airways cancels more flights

Mumbai: Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday directed his ministry's secretary to hold an emergency meeting on the debt-ridden Jet Airways massively cancelling flights after grounding of a large part of its fleet.

The minister's direction came in the wake of the airliner drastically reducing its operations due to liquidity crunch.

"Directed Secretary, @MOCA GOI to hold an emergency meeting on grounding of flights by Jet Airways, advance bookings, cancellations, refunds and safety issues, if any," Prabhu said in a tweet.

"Asked him (civil aviation secretary) to get a report on Jet compliance issues immediately from DGCA," he added.

Earlier Monday, Jet Airways engineers' body wrote to aviation regulator DGCA, seeking its intervention in the recovery of their salary dues, saying non-payment was affecting their psychological condition which, in turn, was a "risk" to the airline's flight operations.

On Monday afternoon, the DGCA had sent an e-mail to airlines asking them to send their representatives for a meeting at 12 noon on Tuesday "to review the fares being offered by airlines".

However, as the civil aviation minister decided that the secretary will hold a meeting to discuss issues of advance bookings, cancellations, refunds, safety issues and grounding of flights by Jet Airways on Tuesday, the DGCA decided to cancel its meeting with airlines.

For the last few weeks, passengers have been venting their ire on social media as Jet Airways' flight cancellations have increased gradually due to rising number of grounded aircraft. This has also led to rise in airfares on various routes across India.