IndiGo board steps in, forms crisis mgmt group

Disruptions ease, but DIAL says delays still likely

- DEEPAK PATEL

The board of directors of InterGlobe Aviation Limited, which operates IndiGo, has set up a crisis management group (CMG) to help normalise operations and ensure refunds for the large number of flight cancellations over the past several days, the beleaguered carrier said on Sunday.

Passengers continued to face disruption as India's largest airline cancelled around 650 flights on Sunday, slightly fewer than the roughly 735 scrapped on Saturday. Before the crisis, IndiGo operated about 2,300 flights a day.

The disruption came after the airline was caught unprepared, with insufficient pilots on its roster, to fully comply with the new Flight Duty Time Limitation norms, which came into force on November 1 to ensure more humane working hours for flight crew. Meanwhile, IndiGo's Chief Pilot (line operations) Rahul Patil directed pilots that from Sunday onwards they must issue a formal apology announcement from the cockpit on each flight, stating: "We are truly sorry for everything that you had to go through."

In a video message to employees on Sunday, IndiGo Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Pieter Elbers said the airline's reboot, which began on Friday, had "worked well".