India's civil aviation watchdog finally cracks down on IndiGo
India’s civil aviation watchdog has finally cracked down on the country’s largest carrier IndiGo, whose hundreds of flights were cancelled in a little more than a week, leading to chaos at airports
Seldom in recent years has a leading domestic airline of India been hitting the media headlines for more than a week for all the wrong reasons. Seldom have the airlines been under such intense scrutiny for their actions and inactions in running their operations
India's civil aviation watchdog has finally cracked down on the country's largest carrier IndiGo, whose hundreds of flights were cancelled in a little more than a week, leading to chaos at airports.
In the latest action, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said yesterday (10 December) that it would deploy its personnel at IndiGo's headquarters as part of its oversight on the airline, which commands about 61% of passenger market share and continues to cancel dozens of flights despite claiming its operations have stabilised.
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The DGCA has formed a team of eight senior pilots and two of them, along with two government officials, will be stationed at IndiGo's headquarters to monitor flight cancellation status, crew deployment, unplanned leave and routes hit by staff shortages. "Both these teams will submit a daily report," the DGCA said in a two-page order.
Its action came on a day when the Delhi High Court questioned the government for not taking timely action to check the crisis caused by IndiGo flight cancellations and asked why the situation was allowed to precipitate, with lakhs of passengers stranded and other airlines charging hefty fares.
"The question is why, at all, this crisis arose and what have you been doing?" a bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said and directed the government and the airline to take steps to adequately compensate the affected persons.
The court asked the authorities if they were "helpless" or if they could have taken action against IndiGo after it failed to implement Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules, including pilot rest rules, by November 1, which they blamed for the crisis.
A couple of days earlier, the DGCA also issued a show cause notice to IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Accountable Manager Isidro Porqueras following widespread flight cancellations.
A nudge from Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to have prompted the DGCA to crack the whip.
According to Parliamentary and Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, the Prime Minister, speaking at a meeting of lawmakers of his alliance NDA, was deeply concerned about the disruption caused by the IndiGo flight cancellations and delays.
According to him, Modi stressed passengers should not suffer because of such issues and made it clear that while rules and regulations are important, fixing problems should not come at the cost of causing unnecessary trouble to the public.
In its response, IndiGo attributed the mass disruptions of flights to a complex combination of factors that coincided simultaneously, including: minor technical glitches, schedule changes related to the start of the winter season, adverse weather conditions, increased congestion in the aviation system, and implementation of and operation under the updated crew rostering rules (Flight Duty Time Limitation Phase II).
Indian Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu announced on Monday that the government would curtail IndiGo's operational routes and reallocate those slots to other carriers.
Rao belongs to BJP's key ally Telugu Desam Party headed by N Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, whose support is crucial to the stability of the Modi government as BJP failed to get a majority on its own in the national elections last year.
