Nearly 72% of Air India Group's 267 planes identified for repetitive defects since Jan 2025: Govt data

Nearly three-fourths of the Air India Group's 267 planes that were analysed for repetitive defects have been identified as having recurring defects, the data presented in the Lok Sabha on Thursday showed.

In all, 377 aircraft have been identified as having recurring defects since January last year, of the total 754 aircraft analysed for such deficiencies across six scheduled airlines, the government told Lok Sabha on Thursday.

Of these, 405 aircraft belonging to IndiGo were analysed, of which 148 were identified for repetitive defects, as on February 3, this year, as per the data presented by Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol in Lok Sabha in response to MPs’ questions.

Of the 166 Air India aircraft analysed, 137 planes were identified for repetitive defects, while 54 Air India Express aircraft were identified for repetitive defects of the 101 aircraft analysed, the data showed.

Taken together, a total of 267 aircraft of Air India Group (Air India and Air India Express) were analysed, of which 191 or nearly 72 per cent were identified for repetitive defects.

Also, of the 43 aircraft of SpiceJet analysed, 16 planes were identified for repetitive defects, and a total of 14 Akasa Air aircraft were identified for repetitive defects of the 32 aircraft analysed, according to the data.

Speaking on the data, an Air India spokesperson said, "We have, out of abundance of caution, carried out checks across our fleet. Hence, numbers are higher."

A senior Air India executive said there are different types of equipment which are checked on planes. These are categorised into A, B, C and D segments, depending on the priority or urgency of the equipment.

"In case of Air India, most of the issues are with category D, which includes items like seats, tray tables, screens (on the back of seats) and so on. These are not related to the safety of the aircraft," the executive said.

As the retrofit programme for narrow-body aircraft rolls out over the next two years, these issues will be resolved too, the executive added.

At the same time, aviation safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also conducted 3,890 surveillance inspections, 56 regulatory audits, 84 surveillance of foreign aircraft (SOFA) and 492 ramp checks as part of its planned surveillance activities last year, besides carrying out 874 spot checks and 550 night surveillance as part of the unplanned surveillance activities during the previous year, Mohol said.

In response to another question, the Minister said that in 2022, DGCA had 637 sanctioned technical posts and added that in order to address shortage of manpower in future, the restructuring has been done and number of sanctioned technical posts has been increased to 1,063.