Not taking situation lightly, will take very strict action and set example: Civil aviation minister on IndiGo crisis

As the IndiGo crisis enters the seventh day on Monday, civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu told Rajya Sabha that the government is not taking the issue lightly and expressed serious regret over the inconvenience faced by passengers due to widespread disruptions in flights.

Speaking during a debate, Naidu said that the issue happened due to IndiGo's failure to manage crew and rosters.

"The IndiGo crisis occurred due to problems in its crew rostering and internal planning systems. IndiGo was supposed to manage crew rosters through its day-to-day operations. We are ensuring that the FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) is properly implemented, and there has been no compromise on that front," he said.

He added that the airline initially did not flag any issues during the December 1 meeting, two days before the crisis erupted across the country.

"For a full month, we have been closely monitoring the situation. On December 1, we held a meeting with IndiGo regarding FDTL when they sought clarifications, and we provided them. They did not flag any issues then, and everything was running normally. Suddenly, on December 3, we observed these issues and the Ministry immediately stepped in. We took control of the situation at airports and consulted all stakeholders," he said.

He lameted how people across the country faced great difficulty due to cancellations and disruptions in flights. "You have seen how things unfolded over those two days. Passengers faced a lot of difficulty, and we do not take this situation lightly. An inquiry is underway, and we will take very strict action, not only for this case but as an example," he said.

Naidu added that any miscompliance or non-adherence by any person, entity, organization, or operator in civil aviation will attract very strict action to set an industry-wide example.

Over 400 IndiGo flights were cancelled from Delhi, Bengaluru and other airports on Monday as the disruptions in the crisis-hit airline's flight operations entered the seventh day.

IndIGo has been facing heat from both the government and the passengers for cancelling hundreds of flights since December 2, citing regulatory changes in the pilots' flight duty and regulations norms.

The latest FDTL norms, which entail increased weekly rest periods to 48 hours, extended night hours, and limiting the number of night landings to only two, as against six earlier, were initially opposed by domestic airlines, including IndiGo and Tata Group-owned Air India.

But they were subsequently rolled out by the DGCA following the Delhi High Court's directives, albeit with a delay of over one year, in a phased manner, and with certain variations for airlines like IndiGo and Air India.

The Centre later relaxed some of the norms as the IndiGo crisis spiralled out of control.