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Days after the Government set up a committee to probe the unprecedented wave of flight cancellations over the past week by IndiGo, the country’s largest carrier is set to face further scrutiny with the Parliamentary Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture likely to summon its top officials over the issue.
Sources said the committee has not yet fixed a date but the issue is “firmly on its mind” and may be taken up in its next sitting.
The committee, chaired by JDU MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, is also likely to question officials from the Ministry of Civil Aviation to know “what they have been doing” and representatives of other private airlines “to find out how they got their act together but IndiGo failed”, the sources said.
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“Quite a few members are saying that this matter should be taken up by the committee. It is an issue of national importance and thus will be taken up. It is important to find out why this has happened and what was the role played by various stakeholders — from the private airline to the airport authority — in this whole chaos,” a senior member of the committee told The Indian Express.
“A date has not been decided. It will be collectively decided when to call all stakeholders,” the member said.
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Meanwhile, Union MoS for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol told reporters in Pune that “passengers have suffered mental distress” and “had to endure mental harassment because of IndiGo”.
Mohol said “action will be taken” after the Government’s probe committee submits its report, adding that “accountability will be fixed, and nobody will be spared”. “Certain responsibilities that IndiGo was expected to carry out were not fulfilled, and this is what led to the present situation,” he said.
On Saturday, turning up the heat on IndiGo’s top management, aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued show cause notices to the airline’s CEO Pieter Elbers and its COO Isidre Porqueras over the widespread disruptions.
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In an internal video message to staff, Elbers said the airline will be operating around 1,650 flights Sunday and that “step by step, we are getting back”. Elbers also said the airline’s On Time Performance (OTP) is expected to be 75 per cent Sunday.
“Today, we have realised further improvements of the system in order to reach around 1,650 flights,” he said in the message from the airline’s operational control centre. According to IndiGo, 137 out of 138 destinations were in operation Sunday.
The Indian Express reported last week that the crisis at IndiGo was triggered by a severe crew shortage aggravated by the second and final phase of new Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms, which came into effect last month.
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While the rules apply to all airlines, IndiGo has been particularly hit due to its massive scale, dense high-frequency network, a large share of late-night and early-morning flights, and its model of high aircraft and crew utilisation.
Compounding the crunch were tech-related issues and congestion at airports, creating cascading delays and cancellations. Other carriers, meanwhile, are operating at lower-than-optimal aircraft utilisation levels due to grounded aircraft or delayed deliveries, giving them more crew rostering flexibility.
As the crisis deepened, DGCA summoned the airline and subsequently granted IndiGo a one-time exemption from some night-operations-related FDTL changes for its A320 pilots. The rollback, in force till February 10, is aimed at helping the airline stabilise operations.
The relief, however, has sparked protests from pilot associations. IndiGo has apologised and initiated “calibrated adjustments” to its flight schedule — including rescheduling and cancellations — to align operations with crew availability. The airline expects its operations to return to normal by December 10-15.
(With agencies)
