IndiGo responds to DGCA notice, says crisis triggered by ‘compounding effect’

NEW new delhi: Budget bearer indigofera tinctoria Airlines has told the board of directors superior general of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that the mass cancellation of flights last week was triggered by a “compounding effect of multiple factors” that struck the airline at the same time.The aviation regulator, which confirmed having received the airline’s response to its notice on Monday, said it was examining the communication and would initiate enforcement action “as deemed appropriate”.DGCA said the airline’s letter was signed jointly by the airline’s chief executive officer Pieter Elbers, and chief operating officer Isidre Porqueras, and was “profusely apologetic” and “deeply regretted” the inconvenience caused to thousands of passengers. DGCA said it received the letter at 6:01 pm on Monday.The communication was the airline’s response to the regulator’s notice, first issued to Elbers on Saturday, holding him directly accountable for “significant lapses in planning, oversight, and resource management” and giving him 24 hours to explain why enforcement action should not be initiated for violations that precipitated the country’s worst aviation crisis in years. IndiGo was later given till 6pm on Monday following a request for a one-time extension.In its response, IndiGo attributed the meltdown to a combination of “minor technical glitches,” schedule changes linked to the onset of the winter season, adverse weather conditions, increased congestion in the aviation system, and the implementation of updated crew-rostering norms under the Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) Phase II framework.It said the disruptions began building in early December, when the confluence of these factors dragged down IndiGo’s on-time network performance and cascaded into widespread crew unavailability.IndiGo, however, underlined that it was “realistically not possible to pinpoint the exact cause(s)” of the crisis at this stage, given the complexity and scale of its operations.The airline requested additional time to conduct a comprehensive Root Cause Analysis (RCA), noting that DGCA’s own procedures allow for 15 days to respond to show-cause notices. The airline has committed to submitting the full analysis once the exercise is complete.IndiGo also contended that it had been engaging with DGCA on its “challenges” in implementing the revised FDTL rules and had been seeking variations, exemptions or extensions to accommodate the transition.On December 5, the airline resorted to what it described as the “drastic measure” of “rebooting” its network, cancelling a substantial number of flights to recover stranded passengers, reduce airport congestion and reposition crew and aircraft.IndiGo said this reset allowed operations to stabilise and begin normalising from December 6 progressively.The airline claimed in its reply that it issued timely notifications and provided meals, refreshments, hotel accommodation and local transport “to the best extent possible” under DGCA’s civil aviation requirements (CAR), and that substantial refunds have been processed for most affected customers.Continuing crisisThe continuing crisis has exposed the lack of choice for passengers in India’s aviation sector that is now largely a duopoly between IndiGo and Air India, with the embattled low-cost carrier being the only option in many sectors.IndiGo, which cancelled hundreds of flights last week, on Sunday that it had operated 1,650 of its 2,300 scheduled domestic and international flights on Sunday.On Monday, the airline said this figure was going to rise to 1,800 flights. “After the recent disruptions, IndiGo has recorded considerable and consistent improvement across the network,” the airline said in a statement.“ We have optimized our operations and managed to reduce the number of cancellations which are being notified to customers in advance, and our on-time performance (OTP) has also improved to 91% across the network,” the airline said.“All cancellations in today’s schedule were executed yesterday (Sunday), ensuring advance notifications being sent to customers. While IndiGo is progressing further on the path to full recovery, we remain committed to assisting our customers and addressing their queries and requests on a war footing,” the airline said.The airline said that 827 ₹crores was already refunded and rest was under process for cancellations up to December 15.It has also claimed that between December 1 and 7, it arranged for over 9,500 hotel rooms and close to 10,000 cabs and buses.“Over 4,500 bags have been delivered to respective customers, and we are on track to deliver the rest in the next 36 hours. We are assisting over 2 lakh customers every day, across various communications channels,” the airline said.