DGCA to monitor flight fares as all Boeing 737 Max 8 banned in India

New Delhi: A day after India banned all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft that are currently being used by airline companies in India, Ministry of Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will closely monitor fare movement from tomorrow (Thursday).

The move comes after two crashes in less than six months involving planes of this make, the latest being Ethiopian Airline B737 Max 8 aircraft ET-AV crash on March 10, that killed 157 people including 4 Indians.

Adressing reporters in New Delhi, he also said that the aviation watchdog will ensure that grounding of aircrafts do not to affect passengers or operations.

The Aviation Secretary told reporters that DGCA has isued NOTAM to bar 737 flights in Indian Airspapce.

SpiceJet today cancelled 14 flights in 2nd half of the day. It operates more than 500 flights daily and has around 12 such aircraft in its fleet..  Kharola said that DGCA will monitor fares on dail basis and airlines have also agreed to check on predatory pricing following the last moment cancellation of several flights.

In the afternoon, Spicejet issued a statement saying, "While a majority of passengers affected as a result of these cancellations have been accommodated by SpiceJet on alternate flights, rest have been offered a full-refund."

"SpiceJet has presently announced cancellation of 14 flights for today and will be operating additional flights from tomorrow. Of the 76 planes in our fleet, 64 aircraft are in operations and we are confident of minimizing the inconvenience to our passengers and attain normalcy in our operations," it added.

India has joined countries like the UK, France, Germany, Malaysia, China, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and South Africa in banning the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft.

In October last year, Lion Air, of the same make, crashed killing over 180 people in Indonesia.