Operated 700 flights on Friday, says IndiGo; points at 1,600 cancellations on 4th day of crisis

Mumbai, Dec 6 (PTI) Domestic carrier IndiGo on Saturday said it operated only 700 flights on Friday against its usual number of 2,300, suggesting 1,600 cancellations during the day.

The airline had said it had cancelled "over 1,000 flights" on Friday, when IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers, after maintaining a stoic silence on the crisis for three days, finally acknowledged that it was cancelling flights in big numbers.

Besides cancelling a record number of flights in a day by any Indian carrier in the country's aviation history, IndiGo's on-time performance hit rock bottom at 3.7 per cent on Friday, triggered by disruption in operations amid the transition to the second phase of new flight duty and rest period norms for pilots, as per the Civil Aviation Ministry website.

The second phase of these norms, which came into force from November 1 and consist of change in night definition to 12am-6pm from 12 am-5 pm earlier, and restricting number of night landings to two from six earlier, applies to all domestic carriers.

The Gurugram-based airline, which is partially-owned by Rahul Bhatia, has, however, now secured temporarily from the aviation safety regulator DGCA major relaxations in these norms by way reverting to 12 am to 5 pm as the definition of the night duty and allowing pilots to do six landings in a night.

"We had cancelled a significant number of flights and operated a little above 700 flights yesterday (Friday) connecting 113 destinations," an IndiGo spokesperson said in the statement.

IndiGo operates a total of 2300 daily flights per day.

"The main objective was to reboot the network, systems, and rosters so that we could start afresh today (Saturday) with higher number of flights, improved stability, and there are some early signs of improvement," it said.

The airline said it operated 1,500 flights on Saturday.

It also said over 95 per cent of network connectivity has already been re-established as it has been able to operate to 135 of the existing 138 destinations in operations, adding, "we apologise once again".

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.

"ALPA India expresses its deep concern that this step directly contradicts the Court's directions, which mandate the enforcement of fatigue-mitigation standards rooted in aviation science," the Association said in a statement late Friday.

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 protection.

"We urge the (Civil Aviation) Ministry and the regulator to uphold the Court's order in both letter and spirit and to prioritise the safety of the pilots and travelling public above all commercial considerations," ALPA India said.

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.

The latest flight duty time limitations (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 also initially opposed by other domestic airlines, including 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 a 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, was implemented from November 1.

The norms were originally to be put in place in March 2024.

Another pilots' body Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has alleged that IndiGo, despite getting a two-year preparatory window before the full implementation of new flight duty and rest period norms for cockpit crew, "inexplicably" adopted a "hiring freeze", policy.

All other airlines have provisioned pilots adequately and remain largely unaffected due to timely planning and preparation," it recently said, adding, "the current disruption is the direct consequence of IndiGo's prolonged and unorthodox lean manpower strategy across departments, particularly in-flight operations." PTI IAS RAM TRB