IndiGo Chairman Apologizes for Massive Flight Disruptions and Announces External Investigation

Since last week, IndiGo has cancelled thousands of flights nationwide, causing significant disruption to travel plans across India.

Mumbai:

IndiGo Chairman Vikram Singh Mehta announced on Wednesday that the airline's board will thoroughly investigate every aspect of the recent widespread flight disruptions.

In a video message, Mehta revealed that the board has decided to bring in external technical experts to collaborate with management to determine the root causes of the disruption.

"On December 3, an unexpected chain of events led to large-scale flight cancellations... Thousands of our passengers were left stranded... I know how much distress this has caused. I want to say very simply and very clearly, we are sorry," Mehta stated.

IndiGo has been facing operational challenges since last week, resulting in thousands of cancelled flights across the country after failing to adequately plan for stricter safety regulations. The peak of cancellations occurred on December 5, though the airline claimed on Tuesday that operations had stabilized and returned to normal levels.

Despite these claims, approximately 220 flights were still cancelled at major airports including Delhi and Mumbai on Wednesday.

"We did not meet your expectations during those days. And for that, we are truly, truly sorry," Mehta acknowledged.

The chairman addressed the criticism the airline has received over the past week, describing some as fair and some as unfair. "The fair criticism is that the airline let you down. We owe answers to our customers, to our government, to our shareholders and, equally importantly, to our employees. We assure you that we will examine every aspect of what went wrong and we will learn from it," he promised.

Mehta announced that the board would involve external technical experts to work alongside management to identify root causes and implement corrective measures to prevent similar disruptions in the future.

However, he firmly denied certain allegations, such as claims that IndiGo had deliberately engineered the crisis or compromised safety, calling these accusations "untrue."

"IndiGo has followed the pilot fatigue (FDTL) rules as they came into effect. We operated under the new rules throughout... both in July and November. We did not attempt to bypass them, nor did we do anything that negatively impacted our unblemished track record of safety," Mehta insisted.

According to the chairman, the disruptions were not the result of any "deliberate action" but rather stemmed from "a combination of internal and unanticipated external events." These included minor technical issues, scheduled changes related to the start of the winter season, adverse weather conditions, increased congestion in the aviation system, and implementation of updated Crew Rostering rules.

It is worth noting that while other Indian carriers faced these same "unanticipated external" events, their operations remained largely unaffected.

"Clearly, this combination of events pushed our systems beyond their limits," Mehta admitted.

He emphasized that the Board has been closely involved with this matter for many months, stating that "both the Board and the Risk management committee have received relevant information from the management on the implementation of the rules." The crisis management team established by the board has been meeting daily to address the situation.

"The company has erred. There is no denying this," Mehta acknowledged.

In response to the situation, the aviation regulator DGCA has decided to form an oversight team "in view of passenger inconvenience caused due to large-scale disruptions in the operations of IndiGo Airlines at various airports across the country."

Additionally, the DGCA has summoned IndiGo Chief Executive Pieter Elbers to appear at its office on Thursday and submit a comprehensive report with complete data and updates regarding the recent operational disruptions.