India’s regulator has lost patience over Airbus A320neo engine issues, and ordered IndiGo to ground the planes.
India’s biggest carrier by traffic was forced to cancel 47 flights Tuesday and customers can expect more disruption over the coming days.
The directorate general of civil aviation ordered the grounding of eight jets after another mid-air engine failure forced a flight to make an emergency landing in Ahmedabad this week.
There have been long standing technical issues for A320neos fitted with Pratt & Whitney engines.
The engine maker is still trying to find a permanent fix for the problem.
There have been two similar engine problems during flights in the past month.
Last month IndiGo was ordered to ground three jets with two P&W engines and now the DGCA has called for the grounding of these additional eight jets even though they use only one P&W engine.
"The affected passengers would be accommodated on other flights on our network. Safety is our top priority," IndiGo said.
The DGCA also ordered GoAir to ground three affected A320neos.
The regulator is also irked at Pratt & Whitney over the length of time it is taking to find a safe solution.
"P&W in its latest communication has also not given any firm commitment as to when the issue on the engines will be resolved. There is no concrete proposal at this stage to address this issue," the regulator said in a release.
