IndiGo cancelled 60 flights from Bengaluru on Thursday, drawing intensified scrutiny from India’s aviation regulator as disruptions continued across the country.

According to an airport official, the cancellations included 32 arrivals and 28 departures at Kempegowda International Airport.

Ahmedabad saw 18 more cancellations, nine each of arrivals and departures, adding to a week-long disruption that has already forced nearly 5000 IndiGo flights off schedule.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has now stationed personnel inside IndiGo’s Gurgaon headquarters as part of an escalated oversight drive.

An eight-member team of senior captains has been formed and two of them, along with two government officials, will monitor the airline’s crew deployment, routes affected by shortages, cancellation patterns and unplanned staff leave.

The watchdog has also summoned IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers to submit a detailed explanation of the cascading disruptions that began on December 2 and peaked on December 5, when the carrier cancelled hundreds of flights across Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

On Wednesday alone, the airline grounded 220 services from the three metros, including 137 in Delhi.

Chairman Vikram Singh Mehta, addressing the turmoil publicly after ten days of silence, apologised to passengers and pushed back against allegations that the airline had engineered the crisis or sought to influence government rules.

In a video statement on Wednesday, Mehta attributed the meltdown to a mix of internal and external factors that he described as unanticipated.

These included minor technical snags, winter-related schedule changes, poor weather, rising airspace congestion and the transition to updated fatigue management rules for pilots.

The regulator has pointed out that other Indian carriers faced the same external conditions yet remained largely unaffected.

IndiGo’s staffing strategy is now at the heart of the scrutiny. Data submitted in Parliament earlier this month showed a decline in the airline’s pilot strength from 5463 in March to 5085 as of December 8.

This contraction has occurred despite IndiGo earlier informing the DGCA that the new flying duty time limitations would require only about a three per cent increase in crew numbers.

Pilot unions have blamed the disruptions on what they call a prolonged and unorthodox lean manpower strategy.

The Federation of Indian Pilots argued that IndiGo failed to prepare during the two-year window before the new norms took effect, instead imposing a hiring freeze, entering non-poaching pacts, keeping salaries stagnant and engaging in practices the body termed short-sighted.

The cascading effect of these decisions is being felt most acutely at the country’s busiest airports, though smaller stations such as Jabalpur have now begun operating on schedule again, PTI reported.