IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers is set to appear before aviation regulator DGCA on Friday to submit a detailed report on the mass flight cancellations that began on December 2. He had already appeared before the authority on Thursday, as the airline announced compensation for stranded passengers—offering a ₹10,000 travel voucher valid for 12 months, in addition to ticket refunds and the government-mandated compensation of ₹5,000 to ₹10,000.
Despite these measures, the cancellations continued on Thursday. Civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu criticised IndiGo for “gross mismanagement” and failures in its crew rostering system, which he said triggered severe disruptions affecting millions of passengers.
On Thursday alone, IndiGo cancelled 200 pre-planned flights along with 60 additional flights at various airports, as earlier reported by Hindustan Times.
Key Points:
- IndiGo’s operational disruptions began on December 2 and reached their peak on December 5, leaving thousands of flights cancelled and airports crowded with stranded passengers and unattended baggage.
- Chairman Vikram Singh Mehta, in a video statement on Wednesday, rejected allegations that the airline “engineered the crisis” or sought to “influence government rules.”
- Between December 1 and 9, IndiGo cancelled 4,290 domestic flights while only 64 international flights were scrapped, as per data submitted to the government.
- DGCA formed an eight-member oversight team on Wednesday to monitor IndiGo’s operations amid the large-scale disruptions.