Sign In
By signing in or creating an account, you agree with Associated Broadcasting Company's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
By signing in or creating an account, you agree with Associated Broadcasting Company's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
New Delhi: IndiGo, the premier airline in India, has been hit by massive flight disruptions and in the latest update, all of its flights operating from Delhi have been cancelled till midnight Friday. In the last four days, over 1,000 flights of the airline have been cancelled. IndiGo has attributed the flight cancellations and delays to the new roster norms.
IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers has issued a public apology for the flight disruptions and cancellations. As per the CEO, on Friday, India's biggest airline cancelled over half of its daily flights. He also indicated that problems will persist even on Saturday, but the cancellations will come down to 'below 1,000'.
He said, "Full operational recovery is expected to take five to ten days, with gradual normalisation of services anticipated between December 10 and 15. Passengers are advised to monitor flight updates closely."
Elbers, while apologising for the major inconvenience, said various factors created the ongoing situation. The causes include new regulations taking pilots' weekly rest requirements to 48 hours and allowing only two night-time landings per week, down from six. The CEO also listed the airline's three lines of action to address the issue.
He said that, firstly, the airline is providing accurate information to customers and meeting their needs. It is sharing continuous updates through social media and other channels and issuing detailed information about refunds, cancellations, and assistance.
As a second step, he said IndiGo's call-centre capacity has been increased so that more passengers can be assisted. He said, "Our priority today is to ensure that all passengers who faced difficulties at major airports yesterday reach their destinations. Passengers whose flights have been cancelled are requested not to come to the airport. You will receive a notification regarding your flight status."
He added, "Thirdly, cancellations were made for today to align our crew and planes to be where they need to start tomorrow morning afresh. Earlier measures of the last few days, regrettable, have proven not to be enough, but we have decided today to reboot all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest numbers of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting from tomorrow."
Elbers hoped that DGCA's relaxation of the FDTL rules would help improve the situation. IndiGo is "working every day with the Ministry and the regulatory body to stabilise operations." The airline expects full normalcy to return between December 10 and December 15.
Union Civil Aviation Minister, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, while speaking to news agency ANI on On IndiGo flight cancellations, said, "Today, we are seeing that the situation is getting better. The backlogs that have been there for the last two days have been cleared. From tomorrow, we are expecting normalcy to start in the sense that there won't be any congestion, or there won't be any waiting at the airports. Whatever operations IndiGo can start immediately, they will start it."
Also, he warned, "We have formed a committee which will inquire into all this so that they can establish where things went wrong and who did it wrong. We are going to take necessary action on that also. This thing shouldn't be left unattended. We are taking strict action on this, so that whoever was responsible into this needs to pay for it."
