Civil aviation minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu on Monday told Parliament that the government would take strong action against IndiGo for the large-scale flight disruptions of the past few days, attributing the cancellations to “problems in their internal planning”.

He said that in the first week of December, over 7.3 lakh flight tickets had been cancelled because of the IndiGo fiasco. The carrier has processed refunds totalling ₹745 crore for cancelled flights between December 1 and December 8, and handed back 6,000 pieces of luggage to customers, Naidu said in response to questions from the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

He said the government would curtail IndiGo’s winter flight schedule and allocate them to other operators.

The minister said the government’s Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) came into force on November 1 and IndiGo had been operating under the new regime for a month.

“IndiGo was supposed to manage its crew and suddenly we observed this (flight disruptions) on December 3. We consulted all stakeholders. We are conducting an inquiry. Strict action will be taken, which will set an example. For non-compliance, we will take very strict action,” Naidu said.

IndiGo cancelled over 3,000 flights last week and many more were delayed because of a shortage of pilots and crew members that has been attributed to poor preparation for implementing the new crew roster norms, among others. Over 700 flights had been cancelled last month.

According to the government, 955,591 IndiGo tickets were cancelled between November 21 and December 7, and the airline processed refunds totalling ₹827 crore.

Over 6,000 bags have been returned to customers and another 3,000 will be handed over in the next 36 hours, the minister said.

IndiGo said it was processing refunds for cancellations up to December 15.

Many social media users complained they were yet to receive the refunds, while others said IndiGo had made deductions while returning their money.

IndiGo said it had arranged over 9,500 hotel rooms and around 10,000 cabsand buses for stranded passengers between December 1 and 7.

The airline cancelled around 500 flights on Monday, but operated over 1,800 flights across all its 138 networks. “We have optimised our operations and managed to reduce the number ofcancellations which are being notified to customers in advance, and our on-time performance (OTP) has also improved to 91 per cent across the network,” an IndiGo spokesperson said.

“All cancellations in today’s schedule wereexecuted yesterday, ensuring advance notifications being sent to customers,” the airline added.

In Parliament, Shiv Sena (Sinde) member Milind Deora suggested that the government facilitate more competition and break IndiGo’s dominance.

Naidu, the aviation minister, said the government was working on encouraging competition and the country needs five big airline operators.

AIDMK MP M. Thambidurai said he had to wait for about eight hours last week to board a flight to Chennai. He asked about the exorbitant fares being charged by airlines amid the crisis.

Naidu replied: “As regulators, our duty is to see that guidelines are followed. We capped the fares across the country in four slabs.”

Not satisfied with the reply, members of Opposition parties like the Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPM, CPI and the DMK staged walkouts.

IndiGo reply

IndiGo’s chief executive officer and chief operating officer have submitted replies to the showcause notice issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in connection with the crisis.

The airline said it was “profusely apologetic” and deeply regretted the inconvenience and hardship caused to customers. It attributed the disruption to the “compounding effect of multiple factors” that ended in an “unfortunate and unforeseeable confluence”.

IndiGo said it was not possible to pinpoint the exact cause at this moment due to the complexity and vast scale of operations and sought more time to conduct a comprehensive “Root CauseAnalysis”.

The DGCA said it was in the process of examining the response and that enforcement action as deemed appropriate would be taken in due course.

AI ‘kindness’

Air India CEO Campbell Wilson, in an internal message to employees, urged them to show kindness to industry colleagues.

“Whether competitor or service partner, regardless of the colour of theuniform, everyone is sharing the same goal of helping travellers to reach their destinations safely,” he said, urging Air India employees to lend a helping hand wherever possible.