Budget airline IndiGo appears to be limping back to normalcy with fewer flight disruptions on Sunday after their chaotic handling of the new pilot rest hour rules stranded lakhs of passengers across the country last week.
Here are the top 10 points in this big story:
- Delhi airport is less crowded this morning compared to the past few days, with cancellations including a handful of flights from Jammu, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Nagpur, and Aizawl. Eight cancellations at Mumbai and 40 at Chennai airport have been reported today.
- IndiGo aims to fly over 1,500 flights by the end of the day, with over 95% of network connectivity being re-established. "We are able to operate to 135 out of the existing 138 destinations in operations," said the budget carrier that operated about 2,300 flights a day before last week's crisis.
- Yesterday, IndiGo had cancelled over 700 flights connecting 113 destinations, which, it claimed, was due to rebooting the network, systems, and rosters so that the operations could begin afresh today with a higher number of flights and improved stability.
- The sheer figure added to the thousands of flights disrupted last week due to IndiGo's misjudgment of the number of pilots it needed to function under the new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL).
- The rules have been relaxed by the aviation regulator to help resolve the crisis, but the government has called out IndiGo for gross mismanagement that led to chaos and panic among passengers. Action would follow, the aviation minister has confirmed.
- The airline has been issued a show-cause notice by the aviation regulator, said a junior aviation minister, adding that the carrier must respond to the notice within 24 hours.
- IndiGo has assured refunds to the original mode of payment for cancelled flights following the government's Sunday 8 pm deadline, warning that any delay would invite regulatory action.
- A fresh statement by the airline this morning said IndiGo's Board of Directors received a detailed briefing on the delays and cancellations on the first day of the crisis, followed by the formation of a Crisis Management Group comprising chairman Vikram Mehta, CEO Pieter Elbers, and other board directors.
- Trying to firefight severe anger by stranded passengers, an IndiGo spokesperson said the Board of Directors is doing everything possible to take care of the challenges faced by customers and to ensure refunds on cancellation and offer waivers on cancellation or rescheduling during the period of crisis.
- The issue, meanwhile, turned political, with Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi blaming the "government's monopoly model" for the crisis. Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu differed, saying that the government has always aimed to increase competition.
