New Delhi. Continuous action is being taken amid the ongoing crisis in Indigo airline. On Friday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) suspended four flight operation inspectors responsible for overseeing the airline’s safety and operational rules.
DGCA’s four-member committee will also meet IndiGo CEO Peter Elbers on Friday. Peter will be questioned about the massive cancellation of flights last week. Captain Gopinath, pioneer of low-cost carrier concept in India, has said that the IndiGo crisis probably increased because the airline operators had become arrogant and overconfident. That’s why the airline could not understand the situation.
The lack of proper planning in implementing the second phase of flight duty time limitation rules, which came into effect from November 1, is the reason for the crisis that started from December 2. With the new regulations, the airline did not have a sufficient number of pilots to operate its flights.
When there is more focus on the bottom line, revenue and profit growth, and the stock market, it happens that they stop listening to the pilots and other staff. If Indigo had reduced the number of flights before selling the tickets, everything would have been fine.
DGCA should be a completely independent regulator and there should be no nepotism and no political influence. Captain R Gopinath brought Air Deccan in 2003. He was the one who started the low cost airline (LCC) model in India. Air Deccan commenced operations with ATR turboprop aircraft.
He had to sell Air Deccan to Vijay Mallya in 2008 under pressure from investors after the airline started incurring losses. Mallya named it Kingfisher. Gopinath, the father of budget air travel in India, has blamed IndiGo’s parent company InterGlobe Aviation for ruining Air Deccan.
Let us tell you that 200+ flights were canceled at Delhi and Bangalore airports on Thursday. The Civil Aviation Ministry has also directed the airline, which normally operates around 2,300 flights, to reduce its winter schedule by 10 percent.
