The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has intensified its scrutiny of IndiGo, the airline led by Rahul Bhatia, by establishing an eight-member oversight group. The move follows a surge in flight cancellations triggered by a shortage of crew.
As per the order issued on Wednesday, the team will include a deputy chief flight operations inspector, several seniorflight operations inspectors (FOIs), and additional FOIs.
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Two members of this group will be stationed at IndiGo’s corporate headquarters every day. Their responsibilities include examining the airline’s total fleet strength, the average distance covered per flight, pilot availability, network planning, crew duty hours, and the number of personnel currently undergoing training.
These officials will also monitor daily flight operations, unplanned staff absences, the number of sectors impacted by crew shortages, and the availability of standby cockpit and cabin crew at each base.
In addition, the DGCA is assigning a senior statistics officer and a deputy director to the airline’s headquarters. Their task is to track domestic and international cancellations, refund processing, punctuality, compensation provided to travellers as per regulations, and the handling of baggage.
Both sets of officials are required to send a detailed daily report by 6 p.m. to Joint Director General (Administration) Harish Kumar Vashishth and Joint Director General Jai Prakash Pandey.
IndiGo has been grappling with significant operational delays and cancellations for over a week. The disruptions began after the implementation of a revised crew rostering framework, which mandates longer rest periods for pilots and other staff, thereby limiting crew availability and impacting flight schedules.
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