New Delhi, Dec 11 (UNI) Indigo CEO Peter Elbers will appear before a probe committee on Friday, with regard to the investigation into the airline’s mass flight cancellations last week.
Notably, the government has constituted a four-member committee, led by Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) Joint Director General SK Bramhane, to probe Indigo’s flight disruptions. Other committee members include DGCA’s Amit Gupta, senior flight operations inspector Captain Kapil Manglik, and flight operations inspector Captain Lokesh Rampal.
The airline on Thursday told the stock exchange that their CEO has been summoned by the DGCA committee on December 12, to explain the flight disruptions.
The DGCA had also called Elbers for a review meeting at its office on Thursday.
The panel was formed on December 5, and the airline was asked to file its report within fifteen days.
The committee will investigate the causes of Indigo’s massive flight disruptions, while it will also probe the staff management, rostering system fluctuations, and its Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) provisions including the gaps admitted by the carrier.
It will also look into the extent to which the airline implemented the FDTL provisions, while it will also assess what measures did the airline undertake to resolve the issues following relaxation given to it for once, regarding the new rules to fix the situation.
The airline had cancelled large number of its flights starting from December 3, which resulted in causing major distress to the a large number of passengers.
The worst situation was on December 5, with over 1500 cancellations, and just 700 flights operated.
Meanwhile, the airline chairman and also its CEO have released video messages where they have said that the airline crisis was not done deliberately, trying to explain that it was a result of several reasons and factors that got combined, including new rostering and flight duty rules, plus technical and weather issues.
For almost a week, the normalcy had disappeared from the aviation sector in the country, with thousands of passengers getting stranded, while the airports witnessed piles of unclaimed luggage, while ticket prices on other carriers soared.
The turmoil, as per the aviation experts, stemmed from the airline’s failure to adequately prepare for new rules by the regulator, mandating longer rest periods and shorter duty hours for pilots, requirements that took effect recently, while they had already been announced well in advance.
What started as scattered cancellations, soon escalated into a gridlock that rippled through the entire aviation ecosystem.
At major hubs including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata, frustrated travellers were seen in queues for hours, who slept terminal floors, while they attempted to rebook tickets, that witnessed price hikes by the hour.
