The Aviation Ministry expects that IndiGo’s flight services will be restored within the next three days.
IndiGo operations normalised, claims IndiGo CEO; passengers continue to face disruptions
Amid massive disruptions in IndiGo’s flight operations, which led to unprecedented chaos at major airports across the country, the government has decided to institute a high-level inquiry into the lapses in the airline’s services, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said on Friday.
The ministry said that the inquiry committee will examine what went wrong at the IndiGo, determine accountability and recommend measures to avoid a similar situation in the future.
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“The inquiry will examine what went wrong at IndiGo, determine accountability wherever required for appropriate actions, and recommend measures to prevent similar disruptions in the future, ensuring that passengers do not face such hardships again,” the ministry said.
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The development comes after a mass cancellation of IndiGo flights, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at airports across the country.
Over 750 of its flights have been cancelled across the country today, including the complete grounding of departures for the day from the Delhi airport.
IndiGo has said that the disruptions in its flight operations and other services were caused by a compilation of issues, including crew shortage resulting from the government’s Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) orders on mandatory rests for pilots and cabin crew members.
Also Read: IndiGo offers automatic refunds, full waivers on cancellations amid flight disruptions
Aviation Ministry puts FDTL rules in abeyance
However, as the situation turned worse on Friday, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has put the FDTL orders issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in abeyance with immediate effect.
“Without compromising on air safety, this decision has been taken solely in the interest of passengers, especially senior citizens, students, patients, and others who rely on timely air travel for essential needs,” the ministry said.
The ministry has also directed the airline to ensure several other operational measures to ensure that normal services are restored at the earliest.
The Aviation Ministry expects that IndiGo’s flight services will be restored within the next three days.
“Based on the immediate implementation of these directives, we expect that flight schedules will begin to stabilise and return to normal by tomorrow. We anticipate that complete restoration of services will be achieved within the next three days,” it added.
IndiGo CEO issues apology
Meanwhile, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers has issued a video statement, apologising to the airline’s customers.
He said that services are expected to be normalised between December 10 and 15.
“Full normalisation is expected between December 10 and 15, though IndiGo cautions that recovery will take time due to the scale of operations,” the IndiGo CEO said.
While the situation will persist on Saturday, the CEO said the airline anticipates less 1,000 flights cancellations.
Elbers listed measures the airline will take to manage the crisis and resume normal flight services.
“Firstly, customer communication and addressing your needs, for this, messages have been sent on social media. And just now, a more detailed communication with information, refunds, cancellations and other customer support measures was sent,” he said.
“Secondly, due to yesterday’s situation, we had customers stranded mostly at the nation’s largest airports. Our focus was for all of them to be able to travel today itself, which will be achieved. For this, we also ask customers whose flights are cancelled not to come to the airports as notifications are sent.”
“Thirdly, cancellations were made for today to align our crew and planes to be where they need to start tomorrow morning afresh. Earlier measures of the last few days, regrettable, have proven not to be enough, but we have decided today to reboot all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest numbers of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting from tomorrow,” he added.
Aviation Ministry sets up 24×7 control room to monitor situation
The Government has set up a 24×7Control Room to monitor the situation on a real-time basis.
“Ministry of Civil Aviation has established a 24×7 Control Room (011-24610843, 011-24693963, 096503-91859) that is monitoring the situation on a real-time basis to ensure swift corrective action, effective coordination, and immediate resolution of issues as they arise, said the ministry.
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