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Stranded passengers at Ranchi's Birsa Munda Airport amid IndiGo flight disruptions on Sunday | PTI Photo

IndiGo ramps up operations, issues Rs 610 crore in refunds after week-long disruptions

DGCA seeks explanation within 24 hours on massive flight disruptions; cites lapses in planning, oversight, and resource management


IndiGo has scaled up operations after nearly a week of nationwide flight disruptions, processing refunds worth ₹610 crore and returning 3,000 pieces of baggage to passengers, the Civil Aviation Ministry said on Sunday (December 7).

CEO Pieter Elbers said the airline’s on-time performance has improved to 75 per cent, adding that earlier cancellations helped prevent passengers from reaching airports unnecessarily. IndiGo expects its full network to stabilise by December 10.

Earlier, IndiGo cancelled around 650 flights on Sunday, operating only 1,650 of its scheduled 2,300 daily services. So far, 109 flights have been cancelled at Delhi's IGI Airport, 76 at Kolkata's NSCBI Airport, 112 at Mumbai airport, 115 at Hyderabad airport, and 38 at Chennai airport, among others.

Aviation watchdog DGCA has issued show-cause notices to IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Accountable Manager Isidro Porqueras seeking explanations within 24 hours on the massive flight disruptions, news agency PTI has reported citing unnamed sources.

In the notices sent to Elbers and Porqueras, who is also the Chief Operating Officer at IndiGo, the regulator said the large-scale operational failures indicate significant lapses in planning, oversight and resource management.

“... as the CEO, you are responsible for ensuring effective management of the airline but you have failed in your duty to ensure timely arrangements for conduct of reliable operations and the availability of requisite facilities to the passengers,” the regulator said in the notice sent to Elbers.

The DGCA has asked Elbers and Porqueras to reply within 24 hours.

The notices mentioned that the primary cause of the flight disruptions is non-provisioning of adequate arrangements to cater to the revised requirements for smooth implementation of the approved FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) scheme for the airline.

On Saturday, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu, along with senior civil aviation ministry officials, held a “serious meeting” with Elbers to review the situation and address the issues, a government official said.

The official also said authorities will take appropriate action on the IndiGo flight disruptions depending on the inquiry committee findings.

The Civil Aviation Ministry said on Saturday that normalcy had been restored at airports across the country and all necessary facilities were being provided to passengers.

Amid massive disruptions in flight operations due to crew shortage, IndiGo cancelled hundreds of flights, including 1,600 on Friday and over 800 on Saturday, since the crisis started earlier this week, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at airports across the country.

Also read:

IndiGo mass cancellations: Where does the buck stop? | Capital Beat

IndiGo crisis: Govt caps airfares, not to exceed Rs 18,000

IndiGo flight chaos: Airline says 95 pc network restored, railways step in to clear mess

DGCA eases pilot fatigue-protection rules as IndiGo crisis deepens

Rahul links IndiGo turmoil to govt’s ‘monopoly model’, calls for level playing field

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