NEW DELHI: IndiGo on Thursday announced compensation for passengers whose flights were cancelled or severely delayed during the first week of December, even as the airline said its operations had returned to normal across the country.
Except for the 10 per cent of flights grounded under the Aviation Ministry’s directive—about which affected passengers were informed individually—IndiGo operated 1,951 flights on Thursday, carrying nearly three lakh passengers.
In an official release, the airline acknowledged that customers travelling on December 3, 4 and 5 were stranded for long hours due to congestion at certain airports. “We will offer travel vouchers worth Rs 10,000 to such severely impacted customers. These travel vouchers can be used for any future IndiGo journey for the next 12 months,” it said. This is in addition to compensation mandated under government guidelines for passengers whose flights were cancelled. “IndiGo will provide compensation of Rs 5000 to Rs 10,000 depending on the block time of the flight (period of delay). This will apply to those customers whose flights were cancelled within 24 hours of the departure time,” the airline added.
IndiGo said the refund process for cancelled flights has begun through its portal and travel platforms, noting that refunds for bookings made via travel partners had also been initiated. The airline has urged passengers facing issues to write to customer.experience@goIndiGo.in.
In a separate statement on operational status, IndiGo said it had fully restored operations as per the revised schedule allotted after the ministry cut 10 per cent of its network, bringing its daily operational fleet to 214 aircraft. The airline said On Time Performance had returned to normal and that no same-day cancellations had occurred in the past three days except due to weather or other uncontrollable factors. All 138 destinations have been reconnected, it said, highlighting day-by-day improvements: more than 1,700 flights on December 8, over 1,800 on December 9, more than 1,900 on December 10, and 1,951 flights projected by the end of December 11.
IndiGo CEO summoned again by DGCA on Friday
NEW DELHI: Responding to the summons issued to him, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers on Thursday made a presentation to a panel of the Director General of Civil Aviation. He explained the large-scale disruptions and the remedial measures taken to rectify the situation. He has been asked to visit the office again on Friday with some clarifications sought by the panel.
A source confirmed the development to this reporter. “The IndiGo CEO has been asked to appear on Friday afternoon. This is to clarify certain aspects which are not clear.”
Earlier in the day, the eight-member `Oversight Team’ constituted by the Ministry comprising flight inspectors and senior flights inspectors from the DGCA began monitoring the situation at key airports.
Additionally, two more DGCA officers visited the Indigo corporate office at Gurgaon. They tracked the following parameters of Indigo aircraft - Cancellation status, refund status at airline and OTA platforms, On time performance, compensation to the passengers and baggage return.
Both the DGCA teams submitted their respective reports to two Joint Director Generals of the DGCA.
