Picture Credit : @IndiGo6E/X
IndiGo, which faced massive flight disruptions in early December, said it has an optimum pool of staff to ensure stable operations as regulator DGCA’s temporary pilot duty norm relaxations for the country’s largest airline come to an end.
Over-optimisation of operations, inadequate regulatory preparedness, along with deficiencies in system software support and shortcomings in management structure and operational control at IndiGo were among the key reasons that led to the disruptions, following which the watchdog had also curtailed the carrier’s winter schedule flights by 10 percent.
Against the backdrop of IndiGo cancelling 2,507 flights between December 3 and 5, the DGCA approved the airline’s request for certain relaxations in implementing the revised Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms till February 10.
IndiGo, which saw its domestic market share slump to 59.6 percent in December from 63.6 percent in November, operates around 2,200 flights daily.
On January 20, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said sustained regulatory oversight as well as corrective measures have helped stabilise operations at IndiGo, and the airline now has an adequate number of pilots to ensure compliance with the new flight duty norms without disruptions.
Citing the airline’s submissions, the watchdog had said there were 2,400 Pilots in Command as against the requirement for 2,280, and the number of First Officers was 2,240 compared to the requirement for 2,050.
