IndiGo fined ₹1.20 crore over the incident of passengers having food on tarmac at Mumbai airport.
The civil aviation ministry cracked the whip on IndiGo and the Mumbai Airport in connection with the viral videos of passengers eating food on the tarmac and imposed hefty penalties on them. The Mumbai airport will have to pay ₹90 lakh penalty, while IndiGo will have to pay ₹1.20 crore as penalty. Separately, Air India and SpiceJet were also penalised for violations.
IndiGo has been penalised by regulator BCAS (Bureau of Civil Aviation Security); the penalty on Mumbai Airport was imposed by DGCA and BCAS, ₹30 lakh and ₹60 lakh, respectively.
At a time when the airlines are scrambling to streamline flights delayed by fog resulting in a mad rush at airports, a video surfaced showing an incident of IndiGo passengers rushing out at the Mumbai airport, sitting on the tarmac and having food as their flight was diverted. The ministry issued show cause notices to IndiGo and Mumbai Airport saying that they were not proactive in thwarting the situation which was a security threat.
IndiGo earlier said it already initiated an internal inquiry into the incident. The airline has not reacted after the hefty fine was imposed. “IndiGo has already initiated an internal inquiry to address the issue and will be responding to the notice as per protocol,” it said in a statement.
