Everyone is agreed on the main reason for the massive disruption in IndiGo flights: a shortage of pilots. Where they differ is how far the airline’s stick-your-head-in-the-sand policy is to blame.
IndiGo says the crisis was unforeseeable: “Minor technology glitches, schedule changes linked to the winter season, adverse weather conditions, increased congestion in the aviation system and the implementation of updated crew rostering rules (FDTL) had a negative compounding impact on our operations in a way that was not feasible to be anticipated.”
The country’s pilots and aviation experts have accused IndiGo of failing to prepare for aviation regulator DGCA’s new Flight Duty Time Limitations — which curtail aircrews’ duty hours and mandate rest periods — and, instead, continuing its freeze on hiring. The regulator, too, highlighted the point on Friday and formed a review committee.
The pilots’ associations have another, grave allegation: that IndiGo created the latest crisis deliberately and “artificially” to force the DGCA to freeze the new crew-fatigue rules.
Aviation authorities did just that on Friday, citing passenger interest, after IndiGo cancelled nearly 2,000 flights in four days.
Aviation industry sources said IndiGo’s attempt to blame unforeseen factors behind the pilot shortage glosses over its policy of stretching its manpower and infrastructure thin to maximise profits.
“Pilots feel this situation has been created artificially so that pressure can be put on the government to revise the norms,” an industry source, who had spoken to the pilots over the past few days, said.
While the pilots blame the situation on IndiGo’s failure to recruit despite knowing the new rules would require more pilots, some have argued that the shortfall of pilots and the impact on flights have been disproportionate.
“Going by the new requirements, there is a shortage of only 60 captains in IndiGo. Does that number justify the chaos?” the industry source said.
While some of the new FDTL rules, such as raising the weekly rest hours from 36 to 48, were rolled out from July 1, the remaining provisions – including restrictions on deploying pilots at night – kicked in from November 1.
The government had given the airlines this additional time to help them plan their crew requirements, warning them of the possibility of widespread flight cancellations – a point IndiGo has been silent on. Other airlines have not witnessed any comparable disruption since November 1.
“The new rules to address the issues of mounting (pilot and cabin crew) fatigue were framed long before and were supposed to be implemented from January 2024. However, the airlines fought a two-year battle against this,” a source said. “The flying conditions for a pilot are the toughest in India. The rules are heavily in favour of the airlines, and they allow the minimum rest to the pilots,” a pilot who does not work for IndiGo said.
“To add to that, even the pilots’ earned leave was considered a part of the mandatory days-off, depriving them of hard-earned leave. Pilots are fatigued and inadequately rested,” he complained.
“When, finally, the new rules were implemented across two phases, the airline (IndiGo) needed to recruit more pilots.”
Some of the highlights of the new rules are:
- Forty-eight hours of weekly rest for crew compared with 36 hours earlier.
- A cut in night landings, only 2 per week for a pilot.
- A cap of eight flying hours during the night.
“The new restrictions meant that a large chunk of IndiGo’s pilots were at compulsory rest when the airline increased its flight frequency as part of its winter schedule,” a civil aviation ministry official said.
In a video message, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers acknowledged the cancellation of “well over a thousand or more than half of our daily flights” on Friday and offered the “sincerest apologies” to customers.
“The situation is a result of various causes. Yet for you as a customer, it’s important how we as IndiGo address this. We have defined three lines of action,” he said.
“Firstly, customer communication, and addressing your needs for this, messages have been sent. On social media, a more detailed communication with information on refunds, cancellations and other customer support measures was sent. Also, we have stepped up our call centre capacity.
“Secondly, due to yesterday’s situation, we had customers stranded mostly at the nation’s largest airports. Our focus was for all of them to be able to travel today (Friday) itself…. For this, we also ask customers whose flights are cancelled (in advance) not to come to airports as notifications are sent.
“Thirdly... to align our crew and plans to be where they need to start afresh tomorrow (Saturday) morning.”