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 has claimed that it has managed to restore 95% of its network connectivity in terms of destinations. This comes nearly days after chaotic situations unfolded in the entire country, following flight disruptions of the airline. The airline operated to 135 of the 138 destinations on Saturday, and they were hoping to operate at least 1,500 flights by the end of the day.
IndiGo once again apologised to its customers for the current cancellations and delays that have plagued the airlines for 5 days now. In a social media post they said, "While we understand that we have a long way to go, we are committed to build back the trust of our customers."
IndiGo had cancelled at least 1,000 flights on Friday, a huge number given its operational capacity in the country. This was described by the airline officials as the most severely impacted day" in terms of cancellations. On Friday, the airlines operated a little over 700 flights to 113 destinations.
An airline spokesperson was quoted by NDTV as saying, "The main objective was to reboot the network, systems, and rosters so that we could start afresh today with a higher number of flights, improved stability, and there are some early signs of improvement."
Notably the crowds at the airports across the country eased on Saturday. But still several irritated passengers gathered outside the Bengaluru and Mumbai airports, to protest mass cancellations by IndiGo. The airline hit the crisis, after it failed to plan properly ahead of a November 1 deadline to implement stricter rules for pilots around night flying and weekly rest, which ultimately led to problems around roster planning this week.
Meanwhile, the government was forced to step in after chaotic scenes unfolded across airports, especially airports in metro cities, in India. The DGCA has ordered the CEO of the airline to appear before it and also issued a show cause notice to him.
The Civil Aviation Ministry ordered IndiGo to process all refunds of tickets cancelled by Sunday evening and ensure that baggage separated from the travellers is delivered in the next two days.
In response IndiGo said that it is ensuring that all passenger refunds are issued on "priority." The CEO of the airline CEO Peter Elbers, expressed hope on Saturday that the flight operations will return to normal, latest by December 10 to December 15. His assurances however seem to not have convinced the Central government who may be seeking his removal for poor handling of the airline's new rules on pilots, which requires pilots to be given limited flying hours and rest. This the government said caused the present chaos in the country.
