DGCA extends deadline for IndiGo, GoAir to replace aircraft engines

India's aviation regulator Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has given IndiGo and GoAir three more months to replace old engines with new series engines on their airbus 320 Neo (P&W) aircraft.

The deadline to replace these engines expired yesterday, "regulator (DGCA) took a call couple of days back and instructed both the Airlines. Both taken together about 60 engines are yet to be replaced and the obvious reason was COVID-19 impact and the resultant lockdowns. Supply chains and production lines all got impacted and in turn, disturbed the process. Keeping all this in view, we have extended the deadline by 3 months; up to 31st of August 2020." Arun Kumar, DGCA told .

Earlier DGCA had asked both airlines to replace old airbus NEO (P&W) engines by end of month May. GoAir has 13 such planes and IndiGo 16 such aircraft. Both the airlines have faced severe glitches on their aircraft's engine. The major glitches are Low-Pressure Turbine (LPT), Gear Box errors and Engine vibration.

Further DGCA stressed on these aircraft are put on the operation that, "we instructed that for the current times, aircraft with both engines modified should be flown and this should not be difficult as the curtailed operations are likely to last for some more time."

( With inputs from ANI )