The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has ordered Air India to remove three executives from operational roles over repeated lapses in crew pairing and systemic scheduling failures.

The airline has also been warned that any future violation of crew scheduling norms, licensing or flight time limitations will attract penalties, licence suspension or withdrawal of operator permissions.

The directions were issued on Friday, a week after the Boeing 787 air crash in Ahmedabad. Separately, the regulator also issued a show cause notice to Air India for violating crew flight duty time rules following an inspection of its Bengaluru - London flights.

The three officials DGCA has asked to replace include divisional vice president Choorah Singh, chief manager—crew rostering Pinky Mittal, and Payal Arora, an official responsible for crew scheduling and planning.

In its order, DGCA said these officials have been involved in serious and repeated lapses pertaining to unauthorised and non-compliant crew pairings, violation of mandatory licensing and recency norms, and systematic failure in scheduling protocol and oversight.

These violations were voluntarily reported by the airline following a review of its new flights and crew management systems

The airline has been instructed to conduct disciplinary proceedings against the officials and share findings with the regulator within ten days. The officials shall be assigned to non-operational roles pending the conclusion of corrective reforms in scheduling practices and shall not hold any position involving direct influence over flight safety and crew compliance.

While the DGCA’s latest order does not mention specific instances, Air India has been repeatedly hauled up over its rostering practices.

Last August Air India was fined ₹90 lakh for pairing a trainee pilot with a non training captain on a Riyadh flight. Last March it was fined ₹80 lakh for violation of flight duty norms and again in January this year it was fined ₹30 lakh for allowing a pilot to operate a flight without meeting mandatory recency requirement. As per norms a pilot must have carried out at least three take offs and landings in preceding 90 days before getting rostered for flights

“We acknowledge the regulator’s directive and have 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,” Air India said in a statement.

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Published on June 21, 2025