Air India has been slapped with a fine of Rs 10 lakh for the violation of civil aviation requirements (CAR) by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

DGCA on Tuesday said it has carried out inspections of scheduled domestic airlines at various major airports on a continuing basis since May 2023.

“During the inspections of the airlines, it was observed that Air India was not complying with the provisions of the relevant CAR. Accordingly, a show-cause notice has been issued to Air India seeking their response for non-compliance to the provisions of the CAR,” the DGCA statement read.

The aviation regulator said it issued CAR Section 3, Series M part IV titled “facilities to be provided to the passengers by airlines due to denied boarding, cancellation of flights and delays in flights” in 2010, which were revised from time to time to ensure appropriate protection for air travellers in case of flight disruptions and in particular, denied boardings, flight cancellations and delays.”

“It may be recalled that similar inspections had earlier been carried out at major airports last year also and on ground of similar non-compliance by Air India with the provisions of CAR on Denied Boarding of passengers, a penalty of Rs 10,00,000 was imposed on Air India for the violations,” DGCA added.

Notably, this is not the first time the airline has been called out for non-compliance of CAR rules.

It is worth mentioning that the DGCA has also proposed changes to the rules governing crew duty timings including additional rest time for pilots.

The issue came to the fore in recent weeks following the collapse and subsequent death of an IndiGo pilot at the boarding gate of Nagpur airport.

In a separate development, Singapore Airlines said that the proposed merger of Air India and Vistara “remains on course” and is subject to approvals from regulators as well as competition authorities in several jurisdictions.

Post-merger, Singapore Airlines will have a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India. As of now, Singapore Airlines owns a 49 per cent shareholding in Vistara and the remaining 51 per cent is with Tata Group.