Nearly half of inspected aircraft showed repeated defects in 13 months; IndiGo, Air India lead list: Govt
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Nearly half of inspected aircraft showed repeated defects in 13 months; IndiGo, Air India lead list: Govt")
Representational image. Photograph: (Unsplash)
The Civil Aviation Ministry said 754 aircraft operated by six scheduled airlines were found to have repetitive technical snags. Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation said that as of February 3, 2026, IndiGo had 405 aircraft assessed, of which 148 showed recurring defects.
A total of 377 aircraft have been found to have repeated defects since January last year until February 3 across various scheduled airlines, the government said in Lok Sabha on Thursday. The Civil Aviation Ministry confirmed that 754 aircraft operated by six scheduled carriers faced repetitive technical snags.
Murlidhar Mohol, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, said that as of February 3, 2026, IndiGo had 405 aircraft assessed, of which 148 showed recurring defects. Similarly, data shows that out of 166 Air India aircraft reviewed, 137 were found to have recurring defects, while 54 Air India Express aircraft were flagged for repetitive issues from a total of 101 planes analysed.
Among other aircraft, 16 of the 43 SpiceJet aircraft were examined with repeated defects, while a total of 14 Akasa Air aircraft showed similar issues out of the 32 aircraft analysed, according to data.
Meanwhile, the aviation safety regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) carried out 3,890 surveillance inspections, 56 regulatory audits, 84 Surveillance of Foreign Aircraft (SOFA) checks and 492 ramp inspections as part of its planned oversight activities last year. In addition, the DGCA conducted 874 spot checks and 550 night surveillance inspections as part of its unplanned monitoring, Mohol stated.
Replying to another query, the minister said that the DGCA had 637 sanctioned technical posts in 2022. To address manpower shortages going forward, the organisation has since been restructured, increasing the number of sanctioned technical positions to 1,063.
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Air India's response
In response to the figures, Air India stated that these numbers showed the decision of the airline to carry out comprehensive inspections across its fleet as a precautionary measure. Reacting to it, the spokesperson of Air India said that the checks were undertaken “out of an abundance of caution," leading to multiple observations.
Additionally, another senior Air India executive said that most of the issues discovered were low-priority in nature, posing no safety risks. He further explained that aircraft system issues are grouped into categories A to D depending on their urgency, with Category D relating to non-essential items such as seats, tray tables and in-flight entertainment screens. Most of the observations flagged on Air India aircraft fell under this category.
