Indigo Cancellation Crisis: By the morning of 10th December, IndiGo’s operations were looking almost normal, but behind the scenes, the pressure from the government and DGCA had reached its peak. The Civil Aviation Ministry upheld the decision to cut the airline’s winter schedule by at least 10%, which would mean that more than 200 flights per day could be temporarily taken out of the network. This step was seen as additional strictness over the 5% cut already implemented.
Meanwhile, DGCA also formed an eight-member oversight team. Two officers of this team will now be deployed daily at IndiGo’s airline house in Gurugram. In these, one officer will monitor metrics like fleet, number of pilots, average stage length, network, crew deployment, training, deadheading, split duty, while the other will prepare reports on the status of flight cancellations, refunds, on-time performance, baggage returns. Both the teams will submit their reports to the Joint DG of DGCA by 6 pm every day.
Review of airline’s response is ongoing
Meanwhile, the airline has filed its reply to the show-cause notice sent by DGCA to IndiGo CEO Peter Albers and COO. Now DGCA is responding. In its response, IndiGo cited technical glitches, winter schedule realignment, bad weather, air traffic congestion and crew availability as per FDTL Phase-2 as the reasons for the meltdown. In the report, Indigo has claimed that as per the rules, passengers have been given the facilities of meal coupons, hotel, local transport and refund.
Understand the whole picture in an easy way
- In the first week of December, there were record levels of flight cancellations and delays due to crew rostering irregularities on IndiGo. As a result lakhs of passengers had to face problems.
- As the crisis escalated, the Civil Aviation Ministry has ordered a reduction in IndiGo’s winter schedule first by 5% and then by a total of 10%, under which the airline has been asked to cover all its destinations.
- DGCA decided to form an eight-member ‘oversight team’ and deploy two officers daily at IndiGo’s Gurugram corporate office, who will keep an eye on both operations and passenger handling.
- A DGCA team deployed at the airline house will monitor technical-operational metrics like aircraft fleet, pilot numbers, average stage length, crew deployment, deadheading, training, split duty and leaves.
- The focus of the second team of DGCA will be on flight cancellation, refund, compensation, on-time performance and baggage return. Both the teams will give their report to the Joint DG in DGCA every evening.
- Indigo Chairman Vikram Singh Mehta has apologized publicly and said that the airline has disappointed the passengers. He has also tried to make it clear that the airline has not created this crisis deliberately.
- Initiatives such as emergency meetings at the board level, crisis management groups and root cause analysis with an external technical expert have been initiated to identify system weaknesses and improve them.
- During the hearing on the petitions of passengers in Delhi High Court, the court asked the Center and DGCA whether the existing rules are sufficient to protect passengers from such meltdowns in future or new protection is needed.
Here is the answer to all your questions related to Indigo crisis
What is the ‘Oversight Team’ of DGCA and what will be its mandate?
The oversight team is a group of eight senior flight operations inspectors. Some of them will sit in IndiGo’s Gurugram office every day and keep an eye on the company’s operations, crew management and scheduling. Every evening they will send reports to DGCA. Their job is to see how seriously the airline is working on issues like availability of pilots, flight cancellation, refund, compensation and baggage return.
What will be the impact of 10% schedule cut on passengers and IndiGo?
The 10% cut means that IndiGo will temporarily remove around 200 flights per day from its winter schedule. Its effect for passengers will be that there will be fewer flights on some routes and options will be limited. But due to less schedule, flight cancellations may be less and the journey may become a little more stable. This will also affect the airline’s earnings.
How did the situation worsen so much in the beginning of December?
Indigo said that according to the new FDTL rules, there was a big mistake in crew rostering. Also, some technical problems, changing winter schedule, bad weather and air traffic congestion together overloaded the system. Due to all this, pilot availability decreased and it became difficult to run flights on time, due to which many flights had to be cancelled.
Did IndiGo deliberately create the crisis to get discounts?
Indigo says that this crisis was not created intentionally. The company says that they did not try to relax any rules. Yes, they admit that there were mistakes in planning and some things were miscalculated. But the airline claims that they have not made any compromise regarding safety and crew rest.
What is the status of refund and compensation to passengers?
According to the government, Indigo has completed all the refunds of canceled flights till December 6. Refunds and rebooking are continuing further. Another team of DGCA is checking daily whether the passengers are getting the facilities like full refund, hotel, alternative flight, meal coupons on time as per the rules and whether there is any delay.
What has been said on the hearing in the Delhi High Court case?
Delhi High Court has asked the Aviation Ministry and DGCA whether the existing rules are sufficient to protect the safety and rights of passengers in such a big crisis or not. The court is also looking at whether stricter rules or penalties should be imposed on the airline. The aim of the court is that in future, in such cases, the passengers get quick relief and they do not have to fight for a long time.
How stable is IndiGo’s operation right now?
IndiGo says that currently it is operating 1800–1900 flights daily and all its 138 destinations have joined back into the network. Although this number is less than its peak time. Data shows that flight cancellations have reduced compared to before, but capacity is still under pressure due to the 10% cut and it will take some time to achieve full stability.
