CPI(M) MP John Brittas writes to PM Modi, urges JPC inquiry into IndiGo fiasco

New Delhi: CPI(M) Rajya Sabha floor leader John Brittas on Saturday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee or a judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate regulatory failures, airline preparedness, dilution of safety norms and fare escalation patterns among others related to IndiGo fiasco.

He also wanted either the JPC or the CoI to look into the existing policy framework that has enabled "extreme concentration of market power" in one or two airlines and examine the urgent need for a statutory Passenger Bill of Rights guaranteeing automatic compensation, fair treatment and transparent pricing during mass disruptions.

In his letter, Brittas claimed that the mass cancellation of IndiGo services has exposed the "deep structural failures" in regulatory preparedness, market oversight and consumer protection, leaving ordinary passengers dangerously vulnerable. "Given this extraordinary concentration of market power, the failure of a single private operator translated into a failure of the entire system," he said.

"Even more disturbing, after the system collapsed under predictable pressure, the very safety norms initially enforced were hurriedly diluted or withdrawn, raising serious concerns that passenger safety was subordinated to commercial expediency," he said.

He said there was "long lead time" to address the adequate recruitment or rostering of pilots but neither the regulator nor IndiGo ensured it, even as a junior official could have predicted that it could cause disruption.

What transformed this "operational failure into a national scandal" is the manner in which the "disruption was converted into a profiteering opportunity", he said, referring to the skyrocketing of domestic airfares defying any logic of cost, demand or fairness.

"This surge was not confined to IndiGo alone; other carriers too raised fares sharply in what appears to be parallel price escalation under the cloak of algorithmic pricing, raising grave apprehensions of coordinated exploitation, abuse of dominant position and regulatory failure," he said.

He claimed that what passes as 'competition' in the Indian aviation sector is in reality a "near lockout by two dominant players (IndiGo and Air India), a duopoly unrivalled even among major global aviation markets".

"In China, the three largest airlines together do not cumulatively cross 60% market share, and in the United States no single domestic airline holds more than roughly 25% share, underscoring how extreme and unusual India's duopolistic structure is. This extreme concentration has been worsened by the privatisation of Air India," he said.