Full restoration in couple of days, says aviation ministry as it initiates inquiry into IndiGo flight disruption

IndiGO

The civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said that a complete restoration of services is expected in next 3 days. The minister also announced a high level inquiry in the entire IndiGo fiasco.

"With initiation of various operational steps, flight schedules expected to return to normal by tomorrow," the aviation minister said.

The minister also said that the new rules under Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) orders of the DGCA have been placed in abeyance with immediate effect.

The aviation ministry issued an order to mitigate the trouble faced by passengers travelling via IndiGo.

In the event of a cancellation, IndiGo has been asked to ensure automatic full refund. If passengers have been stranded, the airline will accommodate them in hotels.

Special measures have been taken to provide relief to senior citizens. They will be given lounge access.

This comes after the airline faced heat both from the regulator DGCA and the aviation ministry for its approach towards implementation of the new pilot rest duty mandate which led to massive disruption in flight schedules. Hundreds of its flights have been cancelled in last three days and more are likely to follow as it struggles to streamline operations.

The airline acknowledged its failure to anticipate crew requirement due to the revised mandate in a meeting with the officials.

"A review meeting with the airline was convened wherein the airline has acknowledged that it has failed to anticipate the actual crew requirement under the revised norms and that significant planning and assessment gaps existed in implementing Phase-II of FDTL CAR 2024," DGCA said in its order constituting a four-member committee to probe the IndiGo crisis.

Passengers have been marooned at airports with pictures emerging of luggage piling up at airports. The aviation minister on Thursday expressed displeasure with the airlines' handling of the crisis which led to several passengers distraught.

The DGCA, on Thursday, pulled up the airline for its mismanagement of the situation. The airline informed the regulator that cancellations are likely to continue for a few more days till it stabilizes the schedule. The whole situation is expected to get back to normalcy by February 10, the airline said.

On Friday, Delhi airport announced all IndiGo departures for the day -- around 235 flights -- were cancelled. Chennai airport similarly halted all departures to major metro destinations until 6 pm.

IndiGo cancelled 104 flights in Mumbai, 102 in Bengaluru, and 92 in Hyderabad, airport sources said.