IndiGo crisis | DGCA, civil aviation ministry to face parliamentary panel on December 17

New Delhi: A Parliamentary Standing Committee’s meeting on December 17 to discuss the IndiGo crisis is expected to ask the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) about their monitoring of the roll out of the new rostering norms, even as the issue resonated in Parliament once again with an MP claiming that cap on airfare is not adhered to by airlines.

Sources said the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture headed by senior JD(U) MP will question IndiGo officials about how its service collapsed despite the airline having enough time to implement the new Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms.

At the same time, sources said, the panel is also likely to ask the Civil Aviation Ministry and the DGCA on how it allowed the crisis to blow up and an explanation on how its monitoring system failed to anticipate it, as the airline alone could not be held responsible for the developments.

Sources said besides the IndiGo crisis, the panel will also examine other developments in the sector, including the GPS spoofing and interference incidents reported from airports. Officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) have also been summoned for the meeting.

In Rajya Sabha during Zero Hour, CPI(M) MP AA Rahim referred to the capping of airfare following the IndiGo crisis and said that he tried to book a Delhi-Thiruvananthapuram ticket for Thursday and it was costing an “absolutely shocking” Rs 64,783 for an economy class ticket. He said the cap for air travel above 1,500 km for an economy class ticket is Rs 18,000.

“The government propagated the idea that privatisation of Air India will create a miracle but what is the reality today? In terms of safety, quality of service and quality of aircraft, the situation is extremely poor. The government has created a perception that the public sector is useless. What is Tata-led Air India doing during this so-called IndiGo crisis. It is profiting from human distress,” he said referring to his experience of booking a ticket.

“The government has no control over private carriers,” he said, insisting that the airline was “not the sole culprit” for the crisis, as it was the “direct outcome of the union government’s neo-liberal economic policies. He alleged that the union government has taken the sector into a duopoly with IndiGo having a market share of around 65 per cent and Air India 25.7 per cent.

He also urged the government to take back the FDTL exemptions given to IndiGo. “Don’t dilute FDTL norms. The government should end the duopoly. A strong mechanism must be put in place to control airfare and safety,” he said.