Indigo offers flight with no additional cost or charges in wake of Airbus A320Neos fiasco; here's what GoAir did

Following the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCAs) decision to ban low-cost carrier Interglobe Aviation (Indigo) and GoAir's A320Neo planes, both the companies on Tuesday decided to cancel as many as 65 flights. The DGCA banned A320Neo planes as they detected a fault in the Pratt & Whitney engines which can cause severe danger to the aircraft and air passengers. A total of 11 planes were banned - from which eight belonged to Indigo and three to GoAir. 

GoAir has cancelled 18 flights originating from over eight cities, reported PTI. Currently the company has 230 flights operating under them. At the same time, Indigo on its website stated that, it has cancelled some 47 flights across its domestic network for Tuesday. The flights are being cancelled for passengers flying from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Patna, Srinagar, Bhubaneswar, Amritsar, Srinagar and Guwahati, among others. 

Indigo in a BSE statement said, "Upon the implementation of DGCA's directive, the company will have a total of nine A320Neo aircraft on the ground. This has resulted in cancellation of certain flights."

Considering the impact, the company has assured the affected passengers by saying, "Given that we have multiple flights to the same destination, we have proactively tried to re-accommodate all our affected passengers on other flights."

"All affected passengers have been given the option to either choose another flight at no additional cost or cancel their booking and get a full refund without any cancellation charges."

Such situation arose after an Indigo A320Neo flight returned to Ahmedabad on Monday, within 40 minutes of being airborne due to the an engine  glitch and the DGCA took action. The flight was suppose to halt in Lucknow. 

Interestingly, this would not be the first time both Indigo and GoAir have come across a engine failure issue. On March 05, Indigo's A320Neo engine failed during takeoff from Mumbai. The aircraft had to make an emergency landing within half an hour of its takeoff. Also, a GoAir flight last month, took off from Leh and witnessed engine failure issue in an A320Neo plane. 

These two airlines continued to fly the planes with these engines as it is believed that A320Neo planes, which come with two engines, can be operated even if one engine fails. 

The A320neo (new engine option) is one of many upgrades introduced by Airbus to help maintain its A320 product line’s position as the world’s most advanced and fuel-efficient single-aisle aircraft family. 

The baseline A320neo jetliner has a choice of two new-generation engines (the PurePower PW1100G-JM from Pratt and Whitney and the LEAP-1A from CFM International) and features large, fuel-saving wingtip devices known as Sharklets. 

As per DGCA, together both airlines have 45 A320Neos - with Indigo having 32 and GoAir having 13, which are fitted with P&W 1100 engines. Till date, 14 A320Neos with these operators fitted engines beyond ESN 450 have been grounded. 

Remaining A320Neo plans of both Indigo and GoAir are operational, as per DGCA, and there is no safety issue with them. 

However, following the crackdown of A320Neo failure, other airlines have assured their customer the safety in regards to usage of the engine in their flights. 

Vistara has tweeted saying, "The limited Airbus A320neo grounding in India by the DGCA that was announced yesterday, does not affect Vistara's A320neos as we have a completely different engine on our neos. Thank you."

Please note: The limited Airbus A320neo grounding in India by the DGCA that was announced yesterday, does not affect Vistara's A320neos as we have a completely different engine on our neos. Thank you.

— Vistara (@airvistara) March 13, 2018

Currently, IndiGo carries about 40% of domestic flyers, while GoAir holds a 10%  market share in the country.