New Delhi:
IndiGo’s operational meltdown is “on the verge of getting resolved”, and action against the airline is a question of when, not if, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said.
In an exclusive conversation with NDTV on Friday, when IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers stated over 1,000 flights have been cancelled, the minister said all other airlines have faced no problems despite the new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms coming into effect in November. This, he said, made it clear that the “fault” lay with IndiGo.
To a question on when passengers could expect that things would get better, Naidu said, “I can say it is on the verge of getting resolved. The major congestion has happened in the metro airports… and we are seeing all the metro airports, most of them – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai – they have been cleared right now of all the backlog of passengers that was there for the past two days. The other ones will also be finished by tonight. And Indigo is going to start operations with limited capacity again from tomorrow.”
“As the operations settle down, they are going to increase the capacity. But in terms of passengers not facing a problem, you will see that happening from tomorrow. And the full capacity of IndiGo operations getting back will probably take a couple of more days,” he assured.
Asked how the ministry and aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) did not pre-empt a situation like this, Naidu was emphatic that this was not the case.
He pointed out that the new FDTL norms, designed to ensure pilots and cabin crew get enough rest, had come into force on November 1, and the ministry and the regulator had been in touch with airlines continuously. The EASA (European Union Aviation Safety Agency), he said, had mandated updates for Airbus A320s last week and that was completed for 323 planes in a short time without causing any disruptions.
“We have been thoroughly monitoring, we have been discussing with the airlines, and we have given them multiple forums to tell us if such a situation is developing. So, that is why we have set up a committee today to inquire into this (the IndiGo disruptions), find the people at fault, and we are going to take action against them. It is being said FDTL guidelines was the major reason, but other airlines have also had to follow (the norms), and they have no issue,” the minister said.
‘Fault Is At IndiGo’
“Whatever issue we are talking about is related to Indigo Airlines. So the fault is at Indigo, not at the major level, the ministry level or some other level. If there was some problem regarding the FDTL or something from the ministry, all the airlines should have faced issues, but that is not the case here,” he asserted.
Asked whether IndiGo will face action or penalties, Naidu was clear that it would.
“It’s not could be, it will be. There will be action on them, because this is not something which we want to entertain. We are very clear that the focus of the ministry is the passenger… It is our job, our responsibility, to ensure that these kinds of incidents don’t happen next time. So, we are very, very clear that action is going to follow the inquiry,” he said.
