New Delhi: A massive air travel crisis, arising out of IndiGo cancelling over 1,000 of its scheduled flights last week and hundreds this week, continues to leave passengers in the lurch, as the Union government orders punitive measures and a high court steps in.

Despite CEO Pieter Elber's claim that the airline's operations were back on track, the airline today cancelled as many as 220 cancelled flights in three major airports – 137 at Delhi, 21 at Mumbai and 61 at Bengaluru.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has formed an eight-member Oversight Team to closely monitor operations at IndiGo. On December 9, the DGCA asked IndiGo to cut 5% of its winter schedule – especially in routes where rivals operate. Last week, the DGCA had granted IndiGo temporary relief by suspending implementation of the new flight duty time limitation (FDTL) rules – in a move that pilots had said could put passengers in danger.

IndiGo has been criticised for failing to plan adequately for the rules which had come into effect on November 1.

The DGCA has also directed CEO Elbers to present “comprehensive data and updates” on the recent operational disruptions after appearing before the DGCA at 3 pm on December 11.

Travel agents have meanwhile asked the DGCA to devise a new policy for refunds.

“In the last few days, we have seen an airline (IndiGo) cancelling more than 1,000 flights without any compensation offered. The SOP for airlines in India is to keep revising departure times of flights rather than cancelling the flight. This SOP misleads the travellers and authorities on the status designating as delayed and not cancelled and thus escaping the responsibility of compensating the traveller,” Travel Agents Federation of India president Abbas Moiz wrote to the DGCA on December 8.

'How such a situation was allowed...'

PTI has reported that a bench of the Delhi high court, led by Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, questioned the Union government about how the situation snowballed into a crisis.

The bench said that the situation not only caused “trouble and harassment” to passengers but also hit the country’s economy.

“The ticket which was available for Rs 5,000, the prices went up to Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000. If there was a crisis, how could other airlines be permitted to take advantage? How can it (ticket price) go up to Rs 35,000 and Rs 39,000? How could other airlines start charging?” the bench asked, according to PTI.

“What bothers us is how such a situation was allowed to precipitate, leading to stranding of lakhs of passengers at airports across the country,” the bench was also quoted as having said.

'Cut 10% planned flights'

A day ago, the civil aviation ministry (MoCA) ordered IndiGo to cut 10% of its planned flights in a meeting between minister Ram Mohan Naidu, MoCA Secretary Sameer Sinha, and IndiGo CEO Elbers.

Naidu announced the decision on X, saying:

During the last week, many passengers faced severe inconvenience due to Indigo’s internal mismanagement of crew rosters, flight schedules and inadequate communication. While the enquiry and necessary actions are underway, another meeting with Indigo’s top management was held to review the stabilization measures.

Today again, [IndiGo] CEO Pieter Elbers was summoned to the Ministry to provide an update. He confirmed that 100% of the refunds for flights affected till 6th December have been completed. A strict instruction to expedite the completion of the remaining refunds and baggage handover was given.

The Ministry considers it necessary to curtail the overall Indigo routes, which will help in stabilizing the airline’s operations and lead to reduced cancellations. A curtailment of 10% has been ordered. While abiding with it, Indigo will continue to cover all its destinations as before.

Indigo has been instructed to comply with all the directives of the Ministry, including fare capping and passenger convenience measures without any exception.

Reuters reported that this move will remove at least 220 daily flights from IndiGo’s network, based on the number of services India’s largest airline operated before new pilot rest and duty rules took effect on November 1.

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