A man looks at a fight schedule screen displaying several delayed flights by IndiGo airlines at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai.
Credit: Reuters Photo
New Delhi: Trouble in IndiGo will continue for the next 2–3 days with the country's biggest airline on Thursday informing the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that there will be more cancellations of services during this weekend while giving an assurance that it will normalise its operations by February next year.
After a meeting with airline officials chaired by Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu, the DGCA said IndiGo informed that it will reduce its flight operations to minimise disruption from December 8 while assuring that normalised and stable operations will be fully restored by February 10 next year.
Around 400 domestic and international services from airports in Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad among others were cancelled during the day, upsetting the travel plans of thousands of fliers, even as the airline officials unveiled their proposal to tide over the crisis to the regulator.
Known for its punctuality, the sharp drop in its On Time Performance (OTP) from 35 per cent on Tuesday, when the trouble started, to 19.7 per cent on Wednesday gave a picture of the crisis the airline is facing.
The airline admitted that the disruptions since Tuesday have arisen "primarily from misjudgment and planning gaps" in implementing Phase 2 of the FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) norms. IndiGo accepted that the actual crew requirement for the new norms exceeded their anticipation, a DGCA statement said.
The airline told DGCA it was facing "significant transitional challenges" in roster planning and crew availability under Phase-2 FDTL requirements. "These issues, combined with winter operational constraints, have contributed to the sharp spike in cancellations and delays," IndiGo told the DGCA.
"More cancellations will continue for the next 2–3 days as part of schedule stabilization efforts. From December 8 onwards, the airline will reduce its flight operations to minimise disruption," DGCA statement quoted the airline as saying.
Naidu expressed "displeasure regarding the manner in which the situation has been handled by the airline, and stressed that ample preparatory time had been available to ensure a seamless transition to the new regulatory requirements. The Minister directed IndiGo to ensure that there is no increase in airfares due to the current situation.
The Minister also held a meeting with senior officials of the Airports Authority of India and directed that all airport directors must continuously monitor the situation on the ground and extend full support to all stranded passengers.
The DGCA has been directed to conduct strict real-time monitoring of IndiGo’s operations, including field inspections at major airports, with special emphasis on passenger-handling arrangements and timely communication during delays and cancellations, a Ministry statement said. Officers have been deployed to IndiGo’s operational control centers for continuous oversight.
In a message to staff, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers said the airline could not live up to the promise of providing good experience to customers and its immediate goal is to normalise operations and bring punctuality back on track. He said bringing the On Time Performance back on track is "not an easy target".
"We serve close to 380,000 customers a day and want each of them to have a good experience. We could not live up to that promise these past days and we have publicly apologised for that," he said.
An accumulation of several operational challenges, including minor technology glitches, schedule changes, adverse weather conditions, heightened congestion in the aviation ecosystem, and the implementation of the newly released FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) norms-compounded negatively to create a cascading impact on the airline's operations, he said.