Don’t sell business class tickets in excess of number of serviceable seats: DGCA instructs AI – Times of India

New Delhi: Buying business class tickets Air India Thanks to the airline’s outdated fleet of poorly maintained cabins, that means traveling in economy for many passengers. Following protests by a London-bound traveler in Amritsar over the issue last month, Directorate General of Civil Aviation ,DGCA) investigated it, where it found such complaints to be true. The regulator has written to the airline’s accountable manager Nipun Aggarwal to synchronize the tickets sold in premium categories with the number of serviceable seats in those cabins and avoid the same. involuntary downgrade for the economy.
“In recent times, many business class passengers economy was downgraded due to unusable seats, DGCA took cognizance of this and investigated. We have warned AI of booking more business class passengers than the serviceable seats available. Any violation will invite enforcement action,” said DGCA sources. The regulator is understood to have told Agarwal in its order that seats not meeting the design specifications are not only about comfort but also a safety issue.
An AI spokesperson said the airline “has always been in line with the directions and guidelines of the regulatory authority, DGCA, and will continue to ensure compliance of the same.”
In its last few years as a cash-strapped state-owned airline, the Maharaja did not have funds to maintain and/or modernize the passenger cabins of its aircraft. As a result, non-functional inflight entertainment screen, non-reclining seats, broken armrests and behind seat trays are common. The new owner, the Tata Group, is on the verge of placing orders in a big way. But it will take a few years to replace the old fleet and until this is done, such issues may come up again and again.

Air India Boeing 777. of business class cabin
The regulator had last month barred Indian airlines from selling unused seats to passengers and warned of strict action if they continued to do so. The regulatory move came with a probe into over-bookings by airlines following bad weather in Delhi in late May, due to which some London-bound passengers were not able to fly into IGI airport to take a connecting flight to Heathrow. He was accommodated on a direct Amritsar-London flight.
“The AI Dreamliner There are 18 business class seats, of which four were unusable. AI accordingly sold 14 seats for that flight. DGCA sources say that one or two more seats became unusable and then all 14 could not travel for business.
A senior Mumbai-based citizen, who recently traveled in AI business class on Mumbai-Newark-Mumbai nonstop, said: “I paid extra for window seats on both flights. When I boarded the Mumbai-Newark flight, I was told that the seat I had paid extra for was not serviceable and I was shifted to the middle row. The identity of this passenger was not desired.