India’s largest carrier has experienced significant operational disruption across its network this week, resulting in a considerable number of delays and cancellations this week, which has resulted in the Indian Civil Aviation Authority warning the airline of regulatory actions.

While the government is scrutinizing the airline’s operations, it has also set fare caps to ensure ticket prices within the domestic market are not being hiked by the competition, trying to take advantage of the passengers impacted by the operational meltdown at IndiGo, providing consumer protection.

IndiGo Under Regulatory Scrutiny

Indian carrier, IndiGo Airlines, is currently facing scrutiny from India’s regulatory authority, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), for the operational meltdown across its network due to a lack of available crew members. As per reports from Reuters, IndiGo was informed that it had 24 hours to provide a response and explain why regulatory action should not be taken against the carrier.

The reports indicate that while operations have steadily resumed at some airports, such as India’s capital, Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL), several other airports continue to see cancellations. The government had to step in and place fare caps on routes within the country to prevent competing airlines from hiking up the prices to take advantage of IndiGo’s passengers who have been impacted.

Additionally, the Government on Friday announced a temporary exemption from the new crew duty time rules, which is what caused this issue for IndiGo in the first place, while also deploying additional train services, providing alternatives to impacted passengers. Reuters reports the following statement from DGCA official, Ravinder Singh Jamwal, aimed at the airline’s CEO, Pieter Elbers:

« You have failed in your duty to ensure timely arrangements for conduct of reliable operations. »

Considerable Disruptions Across Six Days

According to figures published by the Indian Express, the airline canceled nearly 1,600 flights on Friday and over 800 on Saturday across its network, which reportedly sees around 2,300 daily flights. This accounts for nearly 70% and 34% of its overall operations over the past two days alone. Additionally, at the time of writing, the data shows the carrier has canceled 221 services at DEL and Mumbai Airport (BOM) airports, split by 109 flights and 112 flights, respectively.

The capacity deployed across the country’s railway network will see 89 additional trains that are expected to complete over 100 trips, with a focus on the following major cities and more:

Apart from the additional rail services, the government, for the first time since the COVID-19 Pandemic, has also capped fares on routes to protect passengers. Data indicates that one-way flights of up to 500 km cannot be charged over Indian Rupees (INR) 7,500 ($83), while flights ranging between 1,000 km and 1,500 km have to be capped at INR 15,000 ($167). Major routes such as DEL – BOM fall under this category, which, before the price cap, reportedly saw fares over INR 20,000 ($227) from Air India.

Current Status & Forecasted Recovery

The latest information shared with Simple Flying by IndiGo indicates that the carrier operated 1,500 flights on Saturday, and it expects to operate over 1,650 services, accounting for a 10% growth and over 71% of the overall daily schedule. Additionally, the airline is seeing a considerably higher on-time performance today, recording 75% compared to the 30% recorded on Saturday.

Furthermore, the carrier has stated that while it previously expected its network to stabilize between December 10 and 15, IndiGo is now confident that its operations will stabilize by December 10. The airline is also urging passengers to ensure they remain up to date with their latest flight status before going to the airports, adding that it is working on processing refunds and directing luggage for all impacted bookings and passengers.

In a second press release, the airline also indicated that the Board of Directors of the airline’s parent company, Interglobe Aviation Limited, along with the CEO and IndiGo’s chairman, have been regularly meeting to monitor the situations across the airline’s network from day one of the issues, and that all members have received detailed briefings regarding the nature and impacts of the disruptions. The carrier has also set up a Crisis Management Group to navigate these disruptions. Considering this is a peak travel period in India, hopefully the airline can continue its recovery and restore normal network operations as expected.