IndiGo CEO gets show cause notice

The aviation regulator DGCA on Saturday issued a show cause notice to IndiGo chief executive Pieter Elbers, holding him directly accountable for “significant lapses in planning, oversight, and resource management” and giving him 24 hours to explain why enforcement action should not be initiated for violations that precipitated the country's worst aviation crisis in years.

- Neha LM Tripathi

The civil aviation ministry separately imposed emergency fare caps on domestic flights and ordered IndiGo to complete all refunds by Sunday evening, as tens of thousands of stranded passengers across Indian airports confronted surging ticket prices, missing luggage and mounting anger in the fifth day of the operational meltdown.

The show cause notice from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, issued Saturday evening, cited IndiGo for “prima facie noncompliance” with Aircraft Rules and Civil Aviation Requirements, accusing the airline of failing to provision adequate arrangements to implement revised crew fatigue rules and failing to provide requisite facilities to passengers during massive flight disruptions.

“Such large-scale operational failures indicate significant lapses in planning, oversight, and resource management, and is prima facie noncompliance on the part of the airline,” the notice, addressed to the CEO, stated. “As CEO, you are responsible for effective management of the airline but you have failed in your duty to ensure timely arrangements for conduct of reliable operations and the availability of requisite facilities to the passengers”.

The notice gives Elbers until Sunday evening to respond, warning that “failure to submit your reply within the stipulated period shall result in the matter being decided ex parte’—meaning DGCA will proceed with enforcement action without his response.