IndiGo cancelled as many as 650 flights at various airports across the country on Sunday as disruptions stretched into a sixth day, even as efforts continued to restore normal operations.
According to PTI news agency, the airline is operating 1,650 flights of its 2,300 daily domestic and international flights on Sunday, after the carrier's schedule chaos over the past few days led to hundreds of cancellations and delays, affecting thousands of passengers.
The airline has so far processed refunds totalling Rs 610 crore and delivered 3,000 pieces of baggage to passengers across the country as of Saturday, the government said on Sunday.
In an internal video message to the staff, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers said the airline's On Time Performance (OTP) is expected to be 75 per cent on Sunday.
"Today, we have realised further improvements of the system in order to reach around 1,650 flights," he said.
"We have been able to execute the cancellations at an earlier stage so that the customers do not show up at the airport in case their flights are cancelled," the CEO said.
Earlier today, the Civil Aviation Ministry website reported that the airline's on-time performance from six metro airports had improved to 20.7 per cent on Saturday.
IndiGo said it is expecting to stabilise the operations by December 10 against the earlier anticipated timeline of December 10-15.
On Friday, IndiGo cancelled about 1,600 of its 2,300 daily flights. Disruptions eased slightly on Saturday, with cancellations dropping to around 800, according to sources.
"Following the recent operational disruptions, IndiGo confirms that we are establishing further significant and sustained improvements across our network. On Sunday, we are on track to operate over 1,650 flights, up from around 1,500 flights on Friday," an IndiGo spokesperson said in a statement.
Meanwhile, IndiGo's parent company InterGlobe Aviation announced that it has set up a crisis management group to monitor the situation. "Board of InterGlobe Aviation doing everything possible to ensure refunds for cancellations," IndiGo said in a statement.
Elbers, and COO and Accountable Manager Porqueras on Saturday received DGCA notices, seeking explanations within 24 hours on the massive flight disruptions.
"The main objective (of operating just 700 flights on Friday) was to reboot the network, systems, and rosters so that we could start afresh today (Saturday) with higher number of flights, improved stability, and there are some early signs of improvement," IndiGo had said in a statement.
In the notices sent to Elbers and Porqueras, the regulator said the large-scale operational failures indicate significant lapses in planning, oversight and resource management.
The notices mentioned that the primary cause of the flight disruptions is non-provisioning of adequate arrangements to cater to the revised requirements for smooth implementation of the approved FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) scheme for the airline.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked Elbers and Porqueras to reply within 24 hours.
At the same time, government sources on Saturday said that authorities will take appropriate action in the matter of IndiGo flight disruptions, depending on the inquiry committee findings.
As flight disruptions continued for the fifth straight day, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu, along with senior civil aviation ministry officials, held a "serious meeting" with Elbers to review the situation and address the issues, an official said.
The meeting, held in the national capital on Saturday, was attended by Civil Aviation Secretary Samir Kumar Sinha and DGCA chief Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, among others. At the meeting, the IndiGo CEO was also asked to ensure that the airline complies with the new FDTL within a given timeframe.
Official sources said that the immediate priority is to restore normalcy in flight operations and the airline has been asked to ensure prompt refund of tickets. There have been reports that the authorities might take strong action against the airline and its CEO.
Against the backdrop of a large number of flights cancelled and delayed at various airports, causing hardships to thousands of passengers, aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday set up a four-member inquiry panel to ascertain the reasons for the situation and recommend mitigation measures.
The committee comprises Joint Director General Sanjay K Bramhane and Deputy Director General Amit Gupta, Senior Flight Operations Inspector Captain Kapil Manglik and Flight Operations Inspector Captain Rampal at the DGCA.
The committee will submit its findings and recommendations to the DGCA within 15 days to enable necessary regulatory enforcement action and ensure institutional strengthening, the order said.
On Saturday, various measures, including capping on airfares and direction to the airline to ensure complete ticket refund for cancelled or delayed flights to all passengers by 8 pm on Sunday were initiated by the ministry as part of efforts to normalise flight operations as well as ensure passenger hardships are reduced.
(With inputs from PTI)
