GoAir delayed or canceled dozens of flights this week due to bad weather and disruptions from nationwide demonstrations against a new citizenship law. As a result, crews used up their duty hours earlier than expected, piling on the scheduling woes.
Go Airlines India Ltd., which has been facing backlash from its passengers for abruptly cancelling flights earlier this week, said that delay by Airbus in delivering the new A320 Neo fleet were partly to blame for the disruption.
In a clarification issued on Thursday, the company said, “GoAir has placed an order for 144 Airbus A320neo aircraft and has experienced delivery delays during the month of November and December, adding to its operational challenges.”
In the past few weeks GoAir has cancelled dozens of flights due to the bad weather conditions and nationwide protest against the new Citizenship Amendment Act. Due to the same protests GoAir crew members were unable to report for duty further exacerbated the issue
The airline further said, “during the same time, non-availability of Pratt & Whitney spare engines have also hampered the smooth functioning of the airline”.
The giant manufacturer Airbus is having difficulty in meeting the preset deadline to deliver 860 jets its airliner range for 2019. Even the company accepted in October that its plants were running behind the schedule.
As per the data collated from an aircraft deliveries tracking website suggest that GoAir has inducted less planes in the fleet this year as compared to 2018. As against 17 aircraft inducted between May-December last year, the carrier took deliveries of only 11 planes between April-December this year.
(With input from agencies)