After crew shortages led to hundreds of flight cancellations this week, IndiGo has informed the Civil Aviation Authority of India that it expects its operations to return to normal by February 10. The airline also sought a temporary relaxation of certain rules that limit pilots’ night work hours. The disruption entered a fourth day after 550 flights were canceled on Thursday.
2. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, in a statement on Thursday evening after a briefing by IndiGo officials, said the disruptions were mainly due to miscalculations and lack of planning during the implementation of Phase 2 of Flight Service Time Limits (FDTL). The airline acknowledged that the actual crew requirement turned out to be higher than it had anticipated, according to the regulator.
3. IndiGo on Thursday offered a “sincere apology” to passengers and industry stakeholders following widespread network outages in the previous days, adding that the airline is committed to restoring normal operations as soon as possible.
4. Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu on Thursday convened a high-level meeting to review the ongoing disruption of IndiGo flights and instruct the airline to resume normal operations expeditiously while ensuring that fares remain unaffected by the current situation.
5. The government statement mentioned, “All aspects of IndiGo’s operational recovery and passenger support measures will continue to be closely monitored until full stability is achieved.”
6. Shares of InterGlobe Aviation, which operates IndiGo, fell 3.4% on Thursday and fell 6% for the week, according to Reuters.
7. More flight cancellations are likely in the coming days, a PTI report said, with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) saying that IndiGo will curtail its operations from December 8 to help limit disruption.
8. The Airline Pilots Association of India (ALPA) said that IndiGo’s operational disruptions due to crew shortages reflected a failure of proactive resource planning by major airlines and suggested that there could also be an attempt to force the regulator, DGCA, to relax new rules to limit flight time.
9. The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) alleged that despite a two-year preparation period for full implementation of the new flight service norms and rest periods for the cockpit crew, IndiGo had “inexplicably” imposed a “hiring freeze”.
10. According to a PTI report, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers informed employees that resuming normal operations and achieving punctuality will not be an “easy target”.
