The recent grounding of 14 aircraft belonging to domestic carriers IndiGo and GoAir by the Director General of Civil Aviation has disrupted flight schedules, stranded passengers and mounted financial pressure on the affected low-cost carriers. But the circumstances leading to the move show that such drastic intervention was necessary in the interests of passenger safety and, in fact, late in coming. The DGCA’s latest order grounding all operational Airbus A320 Neo aircraft with certain engine specifications, came after an IndiGo flight to Lucknow suffered a mid-air shutdown in one engine and had to make an emergency landing. This was the third such incident with an Indian carrier in the last fortnight and was blamed on a break in the knife-edge compressor seal used in the new Pratt & Whitney engine of a certain configuration (PW1100 with serial numbers 450 and above). In February, the European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA) had issued an emergency directive barring flights by Airbus A320 Neos with twin PW engines of this series after several complaints of aborted take-offs and in-flight shutdowns. At that time, Indian carriers stopped flying aircraft with twin engines of this configuration but continued to operate those with one affected engine, in line with the EASA directive. But with the root causes still being investigated and PW not offering any immediate fixes, the risks from plying these aircraft materialised too often for the DGCA to continue ignoring them.

Indian low-cost carriers have been the predominant clients for Airbus’ new A320Neo series and they have overwhelmingly opted for Pratt & Whitney’s new Geared Turbo Fan (GTF) engines in their recent deliveries, given their promise of high fuel savings and low emissions. But these engines have been beset by recurring operational glitches since their rollout in 2016. In February last year, after as many as 69 instances of in-flight troubles, the DGCA directed domestic carriers who opted for these engines to undertake more frequent maintenance checks and sought a definite timeline from PW for resolving the issue. Airbus too interrupted deliveries of its Neo range after many airlines complained of premature wear-out of parts in this series. But even as PW is still addressing those issues, new ones have cropped up. Some global experts argue that DGCA’s latest move is an over-reaction compared to EASA’s, as PW’s problems are just teething troubles associated with any blue-sky technology.

But this is to neglect the fact that Indian carriers have reported an unacceptably high frequency of in-flight failures associated with this engine and face vastly different flying conditions from Europe, while accounting for 40 per cent of all Airbus A320 Neos with GTF engines. With cut-throat competition to offer ultra-low fares, Indian carriers are also under immense pressure to cut costs, reduce turnaround times and eke out fuel savings by whatever means they can. This is why, when it comes to trade-offs between safety and airline finances, India’s aviation regulator has no choice but to make safety its top priority.

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