IndiGo Flight Cancellations: CEO Gets One-Day Extension To Submit Report On Disruptions

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday granted IndiGo’s CEO a one-day extension to submit a comprehensive report on recent operational disruptions.

IndiGo has been asked to provide detailed data covering flight restoration and its recruitment plans for pilots and crew. The airline is required to appear before the DGCA on December 11, 2024, at 3:00 p.m.

The CEO, along with senior officials from all relevant departments, has been instructed to attend the meeting.

The airline is expected to provide detailed updates on several critical areas, including flight restoration, recruitment plans for pilots and crew, refunds for cancelled flights, baggage return procedures, timely communication with passengers, and re-routing options following cancellations.

DGCA has ordered IndiGo to cut its planned flights by 5% on high-capacity routes during winter, as it looked to bring some order at India's biggest airline, which cancelled thousands of flights nationwide after failing to plan for tighter safety regulations.

As part of the winter schedule for 2025-26, the airline has been operating over 2,200 flights per day.

The latest order is part of a suite of actions by authorities that followed IndiGo, which controls over 65% of the market share, cancelling more than 4,000 flights since December 2 that left tens of thousands of passengers stranded, upending their vacation plans, important meetings and weddings.

DGCA, which previously issued a show cause notice to IndiGo's chief executive and chief operating officer to explain the disruptions, has set up a four-member panel to probe the lapses.

The regulator, in the fresh notice, said that IndiGo's winter schedule shows that the airline has increased its departures by 9.66% from last year, while the same relation to its summer schedule is set to rise by 6.05%