"IndiGo Back On Its Feet, Ops Stable": CEO's Latest Statement Amid Crisis

The IndiGo airline, which sparked a massive crisis with countrywide flight cancellations for days, is "back on its feet", its Chief Executive Officer Pieter Albers said today.  In the statement, he also thanked customers for "accepting our apology" and booking flights on the airline again. 

"Your airline, IndiGo, is back on its feet and our operations are stable. We have let you down when a major operational disruption happened and we are sorry for that," he said.

On December 5, IndiGo could only fly 700 flights, he said. "Thereafter, gradually yet steadily, improving to 1,500 on December 6, 1,650 on 7, 1,800 yesterday and today more than 1,800. As of yesterday, we are back to flying to all our 138 destinations in our network and our on-time performance has also been normalized," he said. 

"While we cannot undo the cancellations, I want to reassure that ever since our entire Indigo team has been working very hard," he said, elaborating that the airline has taken care of the stranded passengers, given returns for cancelled tickets -- "no questions asked" -- and is restoring luggage to their proper owners.

He added that with the immediate crisis dealt with, the airline has started to "focus internally on what has led to this, lessons learned to be drawn and how to emerge stronger from this".

The government, meanwhile, has started a crackdown against the airline for the chaos at airports - the cancellations of hundreds of flights, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. 

Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu told parliament today that no airline, however large, will be allowed to cause hardship to passengers, and safety is non-negotiable.

The aviation watchdog DGCA, he said, has issued showcause notices to the IndiGo brass and started an investigation. "Depending on the outcome, strict and appropriate action as empowered under the aircraft rules and Act will be taken," he said.

IndiGo, he added, had assured full compliance when the DGCA had planned to implement flight duty time limitations - meant to prevent pilot fatigue and enhance passenger safety - in phases. The timeline was phase 1 from July 1, and phase 2 from November 1. 

But despite IndiGo's assurances, "prima facie, it was observed that internal rostering disruptions led to large-scale cancellations and inconvenience to thousands of passengers," the minister said.