'Blackmail worked': Social media users lash out at IndiGo after DGCA rolls back order on weekly rest for crew

Moments after aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday eased the flight duty norms by allowing substitution of leaves with a weekly rest period, people took to social media, accusing India's largest flight operator of 'blackmailing' the government and authorities to roll back on crew-welfare norms.

Journalists Swati Chaturvedi and Snehesh Alex Philip raised the issue of passenger safety, which is at risk, because of the rollback, as one of the main reasons for bringing out the norm in the first place was to ensure that crew members get adequate rest after long flying hours.

Another user said: "So the blackmail by @IndiGo6E worked. What about the problems faced by the passengers. No accountability??"

Stand-up comedian Abijit Ganguly lashed out at the airline operator and called it a 'planned strike to strongarm the government into giving it what it wants'.

"The fact that we essentially have monopolistic/duopolistic situations in so many major sectors is on this Government. But what to do, let's look for ways to blame RaGa on this too," he added.

Amid the ongoing flight disruption crisis, IndiGo on Friday, November 5, put out a statement apologising for the difficulties that passengers have had to face over the past couple of days. “While this will not get resolved overnight, we assure you that we will do everything in our capacity to help you in the meantime and to bring our operations back to normal at the earliest,” said IndiGo in a statement. 

The airline operator also informed that it experienced the maximum number of cancellations on Friday and that they are doing all that is necessary to reboot all their systems and schedules. “Our teams are working to reinstate regular operations in alignment with the Ministry and DGCA. Short term proactive cancellations are being made to ease operations, decongest the airports to prepare for starting stronger tomorrow,” said IndiGo.