DGCA committee files report on IndiGo chaos

A government inquiry committee submitted its confidential report on IndiGo's operational crisis Thursday evening, as a separate systemic review found the airline in November employed 891 more pilots than global standards require—revealing that scheduling failures, not crew shortages, were more likely to have triggered the mass cancellations that stranded tens of thousands of passengers earlier this month.

- Neha LM Tripathi

The four-member government inquiry committee is headed by joint director general Sanjay K Bramhane and its report is confidential, officials told HT. The committee was constituted by the DGCA on December 6 to examine the airline’s manpower planning, operational failures, and accountability for the disruption that led to cancellation of over 5,000 flights within six days, which stranded tens of thousands of passengers across the country.

The civil aviation ministry had also ordered a broader systemic review to determine whether the airline's preparedness was adequate in the context of revised crew fatigue rules. An internal document from this review, accessed by HT, found IndiGo employed 4,575 pilots in November to operate its 307 Airbus-aircraft fleet-a surplus of 891 pilots above the 3,684 required under global best practices that maintain six crew sets per aircraft to cover operations, training, leave and contingencies.