The passenger assistance control room set up during the recent IndiGo crisis will now address grievances of flyers of all airlines across the country round the clock.

Officials from the civil aviation ministry, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, airlines and the Airports Authority of India are among those working at the centre, which monitors operations, attends to passenger calls and offers real-time assistance.

The control room — which is frequently inundated with queries on flight timings, cancellations, refunds, baggage handling and meals — has resolved over 13,000 complaints since December 10, the day of its inception.

Civil aviation secretary Samir Kumar Sinha said there had been a marked improvement in grievance redress and positive response from air passengers and other stakeholders.

In the first week of December, IndiGo cancelled thousands of flights, the problem arising from poor planning and staff shortages while implementing new pilot
rest norms.

Such large-scale disruptions left lakhs of passengers stranded at multiple airports, leading to a surge in complaints across platforms, including social media, call centres and the AirSewa grievance portal. It prompted the civil aviation ministry to set up the control room for real-time stakeholder coordination, ensuring effective response to flyers, quick redress and better passenger experience.

The ministry has confirmed that the control room will be made permanent. It said that the control room was guided by a future-ready, technology-driven framework that enabled data-supported decision-making, ensuring sustained improvement in passenger assistance and crisis responsiveness.

Around 20-30 people work in rotation in eight-hour
shifts at the 24X7 control room, Yogesh Chauhan, an employee, said.

“We monitor complaints received on social media platforms of the ministry of civil aviation and immediately inform the airline representatives sitting here, ensuring quick resolution of problems,” Chauhan said.

Representatives of Air India, Air India Express, IndiGo, SpiceJet, Akasa and Alliance Air were seen coordinating with the centre's officials to address flyers’ concerns on Sunday.

IndiGo’s director (customer experience) Pratik Arjun Sen said they had to handle
a mixed bag of queries from passengers.

“Since the disruptions earlier this month, the customer experience team has been working hard to address the issues, including ticket refunds, and there has been a significant improvement,” he said.

Lisa Agarwal, who is part of the customer happiness team at Air India Express, said most of the complaints were regarding lost or damaged baggage and meals not being served onboard.

“The grievances are sought to be resolved within 72 hours of receiving them,” she added.

Arvind Yadav, who deals with grievances reported through the AirSewa portal, said they kept escalating the complaints with airlines until passengers were satisfied with the solutions.

The idea for a control room took shape during a late-night review meeting by the civil aviation ministry on December 9 to address the operational disruptions at IndiGo. A centralised control room was established within five-six hours on the morning of December 10.