The country’s largest airline Indigo is facing a major crisis. Crew shortage and new FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitation) rules have hit operations hard. Sources say that more than 250 Indigo flights are expected to be canceled at major airports on Thursday alone. Flights remained affected until Friday morning, and thousands of flights were cancelled. The government has decided to conduct a high-level inquiry into this matter. The investigation will look into what went wrong in IndiGo, responsibility will be fixed as per need and appropriate action will be taken. It will also advise on taking steps to prevent such problems in future so that passengers do not have to face such problems again.
The government has formed an inquiry committee of four members to investigate this matter. In this, Joint Director General Sanjay K. Brahmane, Deputy Director General Amit Gupta, Captain Kapil Manglik, SFOI and Captain Lokesh Rampal, FOI. They will submit their report within 15 days. Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Ministry has taken steps to immediately implement these rules for airlines, especially IndiGo. To minimize major disruption in flight schedules and restore services without delay, the ministry said two orders have been issued to minimize inconvenience to people and stabilize services.
All flight schedules will become stable from midnight tonight.
It is expected that from midnight tonight all flight schedules will become stable and normal conditions will start returning. Full service and stability will be restored in the next few days. Passengers can track delays from home using information systems built by IndiGo and others. Indigo will automatically give full refund in case of flight cancellation.
If passengers get stranded, they will be accommodated in hotels booked by the airlines. Special steps have been taken to ensure that the elderly do not face any problems. They will be given lounge access. Passengers of delayed flights will be provided with snacks and other essential items. The 24×7 control room in the Ministry of Civil Aviation is continuously monitoring the situation on a real-time basis.
Continuous talks are going on with all the stakeholders.
The Central Government is fully aware of the difficulties faced by air passengers and is in constant dialogue with all stakeholders. All possible steps will be taken to ensure consistency in the resumption of schedules and minimize inconvenience to the public, including the relaxation in rules announced by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Friday.
