Akasa Air on Friday said that its writ petition filed before the Delhi High Court is not against the country’s aviation regulator or the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), but “a plea” regarding mandatory notice period requirements by its pilots.
The airline had recently approached the high court and alleged that a “small set” of its pilots abandoned their duties and had left the organisation without serving their mandatory contractual notice period.
The airline said the development caused a disruption of flights between July and September 2023.
“This necessitated last-minute cancellations that stranded customers and caused inconvenience to the travelling public,” the airline said in a statement on Friday.
“In the interest of passenger convenience, and an attempt to stop this unethical and illegal practice by this set of pilots, Akasa Air has sought relief from the Delhi High Court. We want to clarify that it is not a matter against the DGCA or the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) but a plea to the courts to urgently interpret and clarify the interim order issued by the very same court on the very same matter in 2018, relating to mandatory notice period requirements by the pilots.”
As per the airline, since the beginning of the proceedings, it has asserted in the court that this is a “non-adversarial” claim and is only in the nature of seeking clarifications and instructions to enforce an existing interim order and the Civil Aviation Regulation (CAR).
“With the many positive steps being taken by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) to make India’s civil aviation industry profitable, stable, safer, growth-oriented and progressive, it is extremely disheartening to see this distorted and incorrectly depicted version of occurrences being presented. Akasa has been a direct beneficiary of the DGCA and MoCA’s transparent and progressive policies and regulations and we continue to remain deeply obliged and grateful for their unwavering guidance and support.”