After a weeklong suffering and facing thousands of stranded passengers and anger across the country, IndiGo chairman and non-executive independent director Vikram Singh Mehta finally broke his silence. On Wednesday, he publicly apologised for this unprecedented flight service disruption. However, while apologising, he directly rejected allegations that this crisis was deliberately created to avoid the new pilot rest policy.
In a video message on Wednesday, Vikram Singh Mehta said that customers were disappointed by the massive flight cancellations and delays that occurred from December 3. He said that IndiGo failed to meet customer expectations. However, we assure you that flight operations have returned to normal faster than expected.
Not a deliberate crisis, claims Chairman
There were rumours on social media and in various circles that IndiGo deliberately created this chaos to avoid the new rules issued by DGCA increasing pilots' rest time and to pressure the government. Vikram Mehta dismissed these allegations as "false".
He said, "There are some allegations that are untrue. That IndiGo engineered the crisis. That we tried to influence government rules. That we compromised safety. The board was not involved. These claims are incorrect."
Why did such a disaster occur?
According to IndiGo's chairman, December 3 to 5 was a nightmare period for IndiGo. The entire system collapsed when multiple incidents occurred simultaneously – minor technical glitches, winter schedule changes, bad weather, air traffic congestion, and changes in the crew rostering system. He called this incident a black mark on the company's perfect record.
Investigation and regaining customer trust
IndiGo has announced it will be hiring external technical experts to find the root cause of this incident and ensure such situations don't happen again in the future. Meanwhile, DGCA is examining the entire sequence of events.
Currently, IndiGo is providing normal service to 138 destinations with 1,900 daily flights. Vikram Mehta claimed that the situation has been brought under control through the efforts of CEO Pieter Elbers and 65,000 employees.
However, he acknowledged that regaining passengers' lost trust won't be easy. He said, "It will depend on actions, not words and it'll be a journey."
