NEW DELHI: The Civil Aviation Ministry has formed an eight-member oversight team to monitor airports across the country after large-scale disruptions by IndiGo left thousands of passengers stranded. The team, drawn entirely from the DGCA’s administration department, will track airline operations and passenger welfare on a daily basis.
The DGCA members on the team include Captain Vikram Sharma, Deputy Chief Flight Operations Inspector; Captain Kapil Mangalik, Senior Flight Operations Inspector (SFOI); Capt V P Singh (SFOI); Apoorva Agarwal (SFOI); Swati Loomba (SFOI); Aman Suhag (SFOI); Nitya Jain (FOI); and Capt N J Singh (FOI).
Two officers will be stationed daily at IndiGo’s corporate office in Gurugram to examine key operational parameters such as fleet strength, crew utilisation, pilots under training, network planning, unplanned leave, the number of affected sectors, and availability of standby crew in both cockpit and cabin.
Another two officers — Aishveer Singh, Deputy Director, and Mani Bhushan, Senior Statistical Officer will also be posted at the Gurugram office to track cancellation data, refund status on airline and OTA platforms, on-time performance, passenger compensation, and baggage return.
“Both the teams will submit a daily report by 6 pm to Joint Director General (Administration) DGCA, Harish Kumar Vashisth and the Joint Director General, Jai Prakash Pandey.”
Meanwhile, the aviation regulator has summoned IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers to appear on Thursday, December 11, with a comprehensive report on the flight disruptions, action taken and recruitment plans. Nearly 250 flights were cancelled on Wednesday, while around 1,900 were operated.