IndiGo board to hire external specialist to trace root cause of disruption

The board of directors at IndiGo, formally known as InterGlobe Aviation, will involve an external technical expert to work with the airline’s management and help determine the root causes and ensure corrective action so that such a disruption never occurs again, Chairman Vikram Singh Mehta said on Wednesday.

- DEEPAK PATEL

He dismissed allegations that IndiGo engineered the crisis, tried to influence the government's flight duty time limitation (FDTL) rules, compromised safety, or that the airline’s board was not involved. “These claims are incorrect,” Mehta said in a video message on Wednesday evening.

IndiGo had been operating about 2,300 daily flights — roughly 2,000 domestic and 300 international — until the beginning of this month, when it plunged into an operational meltdown after failing to manage its pilot duty roster under the new FDTL rules that came into effect last month. The airline cancelled a total of 4,290 flights between December 1 and December 9.