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IndiGo cancelled 109 flights at Mumbai airport on Saturday due to crew duty norm issues
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The airline cancelled over 1,000 flights nationwide on Friday amid regulatory challenges
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DGCA temporarily relaxed flight duty and rest period rules for IndiGo pilots on Friday
Domestic carrier IndiGo has cancelled 109 flights from Mumbai on Saturday. Of these cancelled flights, 51 arrivals and 58 departures were cancelled at the Mumbai airport.
This comes a day after managing to temporarily secure major relaxations in the second phase of the court-mandated new flight duty and rest period norms for cockpit crew, sources said.
On Friday, IndiGo cancelled over 1,000 flights from across airports. Many travellers were left stranded following the cancellations.
In a video shared on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers, after maintaining a stoic silence over the grave crisis for three days, apologised in a video message for the major inconvenience caused to passengers due to the disruptions. In the one-way video communication, Elbers also said that the airline was expecting fewer than 1,000 flights on Saturday.
It may be noted that on Friday, DGCA provided temporary relief to IndiGo, which is partially owned by Rahul Bhatia, by way of rolling back the night duty definition to 12 am-5 am from 12 am-6 am earlier, and allowing its pilots to do six night-landings from two earlier, besides other relaxations.
Meanwhile, the pilots' body, Airlines' Pilots Association (ALPA) India, has taken a "strong" objection to the DGCA's "selective and unsafe" relief to IndiGo, saying that the relaxations have not just "destroyed regulatory parity but also placed millions of passengers at "heightened risk".
Following the meeting convened by the Ministry of Civil Aviation with ALPA India and other pilot associations on December 5, the Ministry announced that it has decided to place the implementation of the revised FDTL CAR in abeyance.
It is worth noting that IndiGo was the first carrier to oppose the new FDTL norms for pilots when they were introduced in January 2024, with a March implementation timeline.
It stated that keeping the FDTL in abeyance not only undermines judicial authority but also heightens the risk to pilots and passengers by delaying essential fatigue protections.
It had been argued that the airlines require more time to put in place due to additional crew requirements. The latest FDTL norms, which entail increased weekly rest periods to 48 hours, extended night hours, and limiting the number of night landings to only two, as against six earlier, were initially also opposed by domestic airlines, including IndiGo and Tata Group-owned Air India.
But they were subsequently rolled out by the DGCA following the Delhi High Court's directives, albeit with a delay of over one year, in a phased manner, and with certain variations for airlines like IndiGo and Air India.
While the first phase of these FDTL norms came into force in July, the second phase, which reduced the number of night landings from six to two earlier, was implemented from November 1.
The norms were originally to be put in place in March 2024.
- (with PTI inputs)
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