 "IndiGo seeks relaxation in govt rules, says airline has initiated 'calibrated adjustments'")
After cancelling several flights over the past two days, IndiGo has sought an exemption from the pilot rest and duty norms, as it announced more cancellations for 2 to 3 days. The budget carrier has told the DGCA that it misjudged crew requirements under the new government rules, which eventually led to the chaos.
The development comes amid mounting operational disruptions at IndiGo, which have stranded lakhs of passengers and forced hundreds of flight cancellations over the past three days.
Following the meeting with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu, the low-cost airline has been granted some exemptions under the new government rule.
Under the new rule, the definition of night shift was pushed by an hour, from 5 am to midnight to 6 am to midnight. This new term has been rolled back for now. Meanwhile, the norm of capping night landings to two has also been put on hold.
IndiGo acknowledges poor planning
IndiGo informed the DGCA that the disruptions were due to transitional challenges in implementing Phase 2 of the revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms, which took effect on November 1 under a court directive. The airline said the number of pilots required for Phase 2 turned out to be higher than they had expected.
Data presented by the airline showed that after Phase 2 took effect, crew requirements increased significantly, especially for night operations, where slot availability is limited and pilot duty-time restrictions are more stringent.
Airline apologises
The airline has issued a public apology for disrupting its passengers’ travel plans by cancelling flights.
An IndiGo spokesperson stated on behalf of the airline regarding the disruptions until 6:10 pm and said, “We acknowledge that IndiGo’s operations have been significantly disrupted across the network for the past two days, and we sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused.”
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View All“All other airlines have provisioned pilots adequately and remain largely unaffected due to timely planning and preparation,” it added.
IndiGo further said that it has “initiated calibrated adjustments to our schedules” to contain the disruption and restore stability. “These measures will remain in place for the next 48 hours and will allow us to normalise our operations and progressively recover our punctuality across the network,” it added.
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