IndiGo crisis: DGCA sets up 8-member oversight team; deploys 2 members at airline's corporate office

New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday set up an eight-member oversight team to monitor activities of IndiGo as the beleaguered airline's services went into a tailspin over rostering norms.

The order by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that the oversight team will comprise eight senior captains. Two of the captains along with two government officials will be stationed at IndiGo's headquarters in Gurgaon to monitor cancellation status, crew deployment, unplanned leave, and routes hit by staff shortages.

Both teams will submit a daily report to Joint Director General (Administration) Harish Kumar Vashishth and Joint Director General Jai Prakash Pandey by 6 PM.

The DGCA has also summoned IndiGo Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers to appear before it on Thursday and submit a complete report along with comprehensive data and updates, relating to the recent operational disruptions, a statement said.

At least 220 flights were cancelled on Wednesday at Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. While 137 flights were cancelled at Delhi airport, 61 at Bengaluru and 21 services were cancelled at Mumbai airport.

Senior DGCA officials will carry out immediate on-site inspections to assess IndiGo's operations across 11 domestic airports in the next 2-3 days and submit a comprehensive report to the Director of Operations for the flight safety department at the DGCA in New Delhi within 24 hours of their visit, the order said.

The personnel deployed at IndiGo's corporate office will monitor "cancellation status - domestic and international, refund status, on time performance, compensation to passengers and baggage return", the DGCA order said.

The two captains deployed at IndiGo's corporate office will on a daily basis look into the airline's total fleet, average stage length, total number of pilots, network details, crew utilisation in hours, all unplanned leaves per day (like sick leave, casual leave and emergency leave), flights per day and available crew, total number of sectors affected on account of crew shortage and standby crew per day per base (cockpit and cabin).

DGCA said it has decided to constitute an oversight team "in view of passenger inconvenience caused due to large-scale disruptions in the operations of IndiGo Airlines at various airports across the country".