Due to the new safety rules of the aviation sector, the country’s largest airline company Indigo is facing crew shortage for the third consecutive day. This has had a negative impact on Indigo’s operations. According to news agency PTI, on Thursday, more than 300 Indigo flights were canceled in more than 10 airports including Delhi and Mumbai.
Today i.e. on 4th December, a meeting was held between IndiGo officials and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). This meeting was called amid the ongoing flight disruptions across the country.
120 flights canceled in Bengaluru and Hyderabad
A total of 95 IndiGo flights have been canceled at Delhi Airport today. Of these, 48 were domestic and international flights leaving and 47 coming from Delhi. 86 flights have been canceled in Mumbai, 73 in Bengaluru, 64 in Hyderabad, 4 in Jaipur and 3 in Indore.
On December 3, 2 out of 10 flights could not take off on time. 1700 flights were canceled on Wednesday and 1400 flights were canceled on Tuesday. That means, more than 3000 flights were canceled in the last 2 days. An atmosphere of crowd of passengers and chaos was seen at big airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata. According to aviation sector sources, the total number of flights canceled in the last 3 days has crossed 600.
Indigo operates 2,300 flights a day
Indigo Airlines operates around 2,300 domestic and international flights a day. This number is almost double the number of flights operated by Air India in a day. On such a large scale, if even 10–20% of flights are delayed or cancelled, it means 200–400 flights are affected. Huge difficulties for thousands of passengers. On Wednesday also, more than 200 Indigo flights were affected.
Talking about on-time performance of flights, on 3rd December-
- Only 19.7% of Indigo flights are flying.
- Maximum 69.9% flights of Air India Express are flying.
- Air India (66.8%), Alliance Air (68%), SpiceJet (68.70%) and Akasa Air (67.5%).
DGCA gave notice and sought reply
Taking a strict stance on this operational failure, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a notice to IndiGo. In this, detailed answers have been sought as to the reasons for cancellation of such a large number of flights in three days. DGCA has said that the airline is responsible for the trouble caused to the passengers and will have to pay appropriate compensation.
Indigo said that the situation will be normal by December 5.
The airline issued a statement on Wednesday saying that operations have been adversely affected due to minor technical glitches, schedule changes due to winter, bad weather, slow network in the aviation system and new rules related to the shift chart of crew members. It was not possible to predict this in advance. The situation will become normal by December 5.