Following the widespread flight cancellations at IndiGo, four Flight Operations Inspectors (FOI)s have been relieved from their assignment at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) headquarters. "Contracts of these FOIs with the DGCA have been terminated in relation to the recent IndiGo crisis, an official said, citing an order dated December 11. The order said these officers were being relieved "with immediate effect" to go back to their parent organisations.
The others listed in the order include Rishi Raj Chatterjee, consultant and deputy chief FOI; Seema Jhamnani, senior FOI; Anil Kumar Pokhariyal, consultant FOI; and Priyam Kaushik, consultant FOI. FOIs are responsible for managing the standards related to the safety of airlines, training of pilots, and operational compliance.
CEO, COO summoned by DGCA
The DGCA has summoned IndiGo's Chief Operating Officer (COO) Isidro Porqueras and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Pieter Elbers on Friday, amidst growing scrutiny. A four-member DGCA committee has been questioning them one after the other in its ongoing investigation into the disruption. The CEO has been slated to appear in the afternoon, said an official.
Scale of disruptions tops 4,000 flights
As per a report by the Hindustan Times, data filed with the government reveals the carrier cancelled close to 1,580 flights on Friday, December 5, alone. The low-cost airline cancelled about 4,290 domestic flights and 64 international flights between December 1 and 9. On December 5, when the disruptions peaked, approximately 79% of IndiGo’s domestic schedule -1,588 flights-, while 35 international flights operated that day.
Despite IndiGo declaring that operations started stabilising from December 8, cancellations continued. Over 200 flights got cancelled on Thursday, and 54 got cancelled on Friday morning.
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FDTL phase-II implementation at centre of probe
The disruptions have been linked to IndiGo’s inability to smoothly implement the second phase of Flight Duty Time Limitations that came into effect on November 1. Officials also cited the airline’s “mismanagement” in handling crew rostering during the transition.
Taking cognisance of this, the government has asked IndiGo to reduce its daily operations by 10% until further notice.
