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IndiGo’s recent operational crisis has put thousands of passengers in trouble, after which the company has now responded openly for the first time. Chairman Vikram Singh Mehta apologized unconditionally to the passengers and admitted that the airline had failed to live up to their expectations. He assured that the board is investigating the entire incident and concrete steps will be taken to ensure that such a mistake does not happen again in future.
New Delhi. Breaking its silence on the recent major operational crisis, Indigo airline has apologized unconditionally to the passengers. Chairman Vikram Singh Mehta admitted that the irregularities that occurred between December 3–5 had caused trouble to thousands of passengers. Flights were suddenly cancelled, many people were stranded at the airport and baggage could not be delivered on time. Mehta said that the CEO and the entire team were initially busy in normalizing the operations, hence there was a delay in issuing the statement, but now the situation is largely stable and the airline is operating more than 1,900 flights daily.
IndiGo’s clarification on the allegations – ‘The crisis was not intentional’
Chairman Mehta rejected the allegations that IndiGo deliberately created a crisis or brought about changes in the government rules. He made it clear that there was no compromise on safety standards and the board was fully involved in the matter from the very beginning. According to the company, disruptions in flights arose due to several reasons. These included technical problems, weather, increasing passenger numbers, new winter schedule and increased pressure in crew rostering due to FDTL rules. The airline said that this crisis was not the result of any single reason, but was the result of many challenges coming together.
Operations rapidly return to normal, refunds and assistance continue
IndiGo claimed that operations have returned to normal faster than expected and hundreds of crores of rupees in refunds have been issued to passengers. Hotel and travel assistance has also been extended to the affected passengers. According to the company, baggage delays have been almost completely resolved. Services are back on track in metro and non-metro cities and in 9 non-metro cities – Varanasi, Guwahati, Dehradun, Amritsar, Kanpur, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Shillong and Ranchi – not a single flight was canceled without planning. Baggage delivery in these cities was also claimed to be completely on time.
Board will investigate, promise to bring trust back from work
The company said that some criticisms are justified and that the airline did not live up to the expectations of passengers. Therefore, the Board has started a detailed investigation of all the reasons, which will also involve external experts, so that such a crisis does not happen again in future. Chairman Mehta thanked the employees – pilots, crew, engineers and ground staff and acknowledged that this incident is a stain on the clean record of IndiGo. He said that trust will be restored not by words but by deeds and the airline promises to provide better service with the guarantee of safety and reliability. IndiGo reiterated that it will continue to serve the country like it did in the last 19 years.
