Beleaguered airline says operations stable
New Delhi/Mumbai: The Civil Aviation Minister has asked for a 10 per cent cut in planned IndiGo flights to help restore order at India’s biggest airline, which cancelled thousands of flights nationwide after failing to plan for tighter safety regulations.
Posting a picture of IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers, sitting with folded hands in front of him, Minister Ram Mohan Naidu, in a post on X, said that the airline management was summoned to the ministry to provide an update.
“The ministry considers it necessary to curtail the overall Indigo routes, which will help in stabilising the airline’s operations and lead to reduced cancellations. A curtailment of 10 per cent has been ordered. While abiding by it, Indigo will continue to cover all its destinations as before,” he said.
The curtailment is double of what the sector regulator DGCA had ordered on Monday.
As part of the winter schedule for 2025-26, the airline has been operating over 2,200 flights per day.
Airline, on its part, said there was “steady improvement across the network”, as it reinstated flights to all 138 stations. It flew more than 1,800 flights on Tuesday, which will go up to nearly 1,900 on Wednesday, IndiGo said in a statement.
“We have optimised our operations, and our on-time performance is also back to normal levels,” it added.
Earlier in the day, Naidu in the Lok Sabha said that no airline, however large, will be permitted to cause hardship to passengers through planning failures and non-compliance with regulations. “Strict and appropriate action will be taken,” he said.
The DGCA, he said, has already issued notices to IndiGo and that the airline is being held fully accountable for the chaos caused by its internal crew-rostering failures.
IndiGo flight schedules are stabilising, and all other airlines continue to operate smoothly across the country, he said.
After meeting the IndiGo CEO, the minister in the post on X said, “During the last week, many passengers faced severe inconvenience due to Indigo’s internal mismanagement of crew rosters, flight schedules and inadequate communication”.
While the enquiry and necessary actions are underway, another meeting with IndiGo’s top management was held to review the stabilisation measures on Tuesday evening.
IndiGo CEO “confirmed that 100 per cent of the refunds for flights affected till 6th December have been completed. A strict instruction to expedite the completion of the remaining refunds and baggage handover was given,” he said.
“Indigo has been instructed to comply with all the directives of the Ministry, including fare capping and passenger convenience measures without any exception.”
