IndiGo’s post-lockdown plan: No in-flight meals, 50% filling of buses
Budget carrier IndiGo on Friday said it will stop in-flight meal service for a brief period and also fill its airport buses up to only half of its capacity once commercial flight services resume after the coronavirus lockdown period.
Budget carrier IndiGo on Friday (April 10) said it will stop in-flight meal service for a brief period and also fill its airport buses up to only half of its capacity once commercial flight services resume after the coronavirus lockdown period.
Besides, the company will also carry out deep cleaning of aircrafts more frequently, said IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta.
In an email to employees, he said in view of the current situation, the singular focus is on maintaining cash flow and not on growth and profitability. “We are examining all our fixed costs and looking for ways to minimize them,” he said.
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IndiGo’s plan post lockdown will be to first start the flight services slowly and gradually ramp up the capacity, he said in the email that was accessed by news agency PTI.
“We have always been very safety conscious and now we must be health conscious as well. With this in mind, we are looking at changing many of our operating procedures. The new set of procedures have not been finalised yet.
“But we will deep clean our aircraft more frequently, we will be discontinuing meal service for a brief period and we will run our coaches at a maximum load of 50 per cent capacity. We will be coming out with the new set of operating procedures very soon,” Dutta said.
India is currently in the middle of a 21-day lockdown till April 14 to curb the coronavirus pandemic. Consequently, all domestic and international commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this time period.
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However, cargo flights, offshore helicopter operations, medical evacuation flights and special flights permitted by Indian aviation regulator DGCA are allowed to operate during the lockdown.
IndiGo on Tuesday said it has been authorised by the government to operate 30 emergency relief flights at its own cost to carry essential items such as medical equipment across the country.
As revenues of airlines have fallen drastically, they have introduced various cost cutting measures such as laying off pilots, pay cuts and compulsory leave without pay for employees. Dutta had announced last month that salaries of senior employees of the airline have been cut by up to 25 per cent.
(With inputs from agencies)