The Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Saturday issued a show cause notice to IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers seeking an explanation for massive flight disruptions that have stretched across five consecutive days, according to sources.
In the notice, the regulator said the large scale operational failures point to significant lapses in planning, oversight and resource management.
"... as the CEO, you are responsible for ensuring effective management of the airline but you have failed in your duty to ensure timely arrangements for conduct of reliable operations and the availability of requisite facilities to the passengers," the notice read.
The Directorate has asked him to reply within 24 hours. It also noted that the primary cause of the disruptions is the airline’s non-provisioning of adequate arrangements to meet revised requirements for smooth implementation of the approved Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) scheme.
A separate show cause notice has been issued to IndiGo’s Accountable Manager.
Domestic carrier IndiGo cancelled flight services between Tirupati and Hyderabad in both directions, as well as between Vijayawada and Delhi, officials said on Saturday.
An IndiGo flight on the Tirupati Hyderabad route remained cancelled until 9 pm on Saturday and seven flights were delayed.
According to Tirupati Airport Director D. Boominathan, 10 flights were cancelled on Friday.
Boominathan said advance intimation to passengers helped the airport avoid congestion on Friday, even though five flights were delayed by up to an hour.
He added that IndiGo arranged drinking water, food, taxis and booked up to 40 rooms in Tirupati town for affected passengers, with around 1,000 people impacted that day.
He also noted that the airport had to use only half its capacity, which contributed to avoiding overcrowding. On average, about 2,000 passengers use the airport daily.
At Vijayawada Airport, Director Lakshmikanth Reddy said one IndiGo flight to Delhi was cancelled on Saturday up to around 5.30 pm while other flights from the airline operated with delays of up to two hours.
