Govt may curtail IndiGo flight ops in winter after meltdown

The government is planning to curtail IndiGo's daily flight operations in the ongoing winter schedule in the wake of a major meltdown, officials aware of the matter said, on a day when the airline in its reply to a showcause notice by the aviation regulator attributed the mass cancellations to a "compounding effect of multiple factors".

- Neha LM Tripathi

The airline operates 2,200 flights a day in the winter schedule. Though there was no confirmation on the number of flights that will be cut, some officials said at least 100 a day could be pulled back.

"Looking at the current status of the airline, there may soon be a reduction in the daily approved IndiGo's flight numbers for the current winter schedule operations. A final decision is yet to be taken on the number of flights to be reduced," an aviation ministry official confirmed to HT. In this year's winter schedule, IndiGo received regulatory approval to operate 6% more flights than in the summer schedule even as it sought to postpone flight duty rules.

DGCA confirmed it received IndiGo's reply on Monday, signed jointly by the airline's Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer Isidre Porqueras.