DGCA deploys officials in IndiGo office, airports

India’s civil aviation regulator on Wednesday installed officers at IndiGo's corporate office and airports to oversee and report on the airline's flailing operations even as the company’s board said external technical experts will be brought in to determine what caused the scheduling meltdown that affected millions of flyers.

- Neha LM Tripathi

The airline warned of the crisis impacting its third quarter revenue, as officials aware of the matter said the carrier could face hefty fines in the coming days.

After nine days of scrapped flights, stranded passengers and airports overflowing with misdirected pieces of baggage, cancellations continued on Wednesday, though on a lower scale, despite assurances to the contrary by the carrier as well as the government.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) set up an eight-member team of senior flight operations inspectors and said they will scrutinise IndiGo total fleet, the number of pilots, network details and crew utilisation, amid a crisis that has led to the airline, India’s largest, cancelling thousands of flights and leaving millions in lurch since December 2. A two-member team, also deployed at IndiGo's corporate office, will monitor the status of cancellations, on-time performance, refunds and baggage returns to fliers.

"Both these teams will submit a daily report," DGCA said in the two-page order.

The move to tighten the oversight screws on IndiGo came on a day the airline cancelled 220 flights and delayed hundreds more, despite the airline's chief executive officer Pieter Elbers claiming the previous day that it had got its operations back on track after eight days of mayhem. DGCA summoned Elbers to appear before it on Thursday afternoon and submit comprehensive data and updates regarding the operational disruptions.