Following the recent large-scale flight cancellations and operational disruptions by IndiGo Airlines across the country, the company has submitted its reply to the show cause notice issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

According to the DGCA, the airline’s detailed reply was submitted at 6:01 pm on December 8, which is signed by both the CEO and COO of IndiGo. Thousands of passengers were affected due to massive disruptions last week, after which DGCA had asked the airline to clarify the situation. Now the regulatory body is reviewing the response sent by the airline and is asking to take further action if necessary.

What did Indigo say in its defence?

The airline admitted that the recent crisis was not caused by any one reason, but by many elements colliding together. In its official reply, Indigo expressed regret to the passengers and said that at present it is not possible to give a definite and exact reason for this problem. According to the company, the scale and complexity of operations is so extensive that more time is required for in-depth ‘root cause analysis’. As per the DGCA manual, 15 days are given to reply, so the airline requested the regulator to give additional time. He assured that the full report will be submitted to DGCA as soon as the detailed investigation is completed.

What reasons did the airline blame

In the initial assessment, Indigo has pointed to five major reasons. Minor technical glitches, changes in flight schedules due to winter schedule, adverse weather, increasing air traffic pressure across the country and challenges in implementation of the new crew roster rules (FDTL Phase II). The company said that they were already in discussion with DGCA regarding FDTL Phase II rules and some concession or relief was also sought in this regard. The combined effect of all these factors led to a sharp decline in the airline’s on-time performance and affected crew availability, leading to a sharp increase in flight cancellations.

What steps were taken to bring the situation under control

IndiGo said that on December 5, a network reboot policy was adopted, under which a large number of flights had to be temporarily canceled so that the system could be stabilized and stranded passengers could be provided relief. According to the airline, services gradually started normalizing from December 6. The company claims that the affected passengers were provided facilities like food, hotel, local transport, updates and refund as per the instructions of DGCA. Now DGCA is studying the detailed response of the airline and further steps in this matter will be decided soon.