Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu asserted that the government would take “strict and appropriate action” against IndiGo including removal of the CEO, Pieter Elbers, if required.
Amid IndiGo flight chaos, Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu issued a public apology to distraught flyers, and asserted that an investigation will not only scrutinise the airline’s conduct, but also look into regulator, DGCA’s handling of the situation. Naidu asserted that the government would take “strict and appropriate action” against IndiGo including removal of the CEO, Pieter Elbers, if required.
When asked whether someone should apologise for the crisis, Naidu said, “Yes, I’m apologising. I’m also responsible as a minister to ensure that this sector is flying high… To ensure things are normalised… To ensure people who are responsible for this are held accountable… And to ensure that such situations don’t arise in the future,” he said, emphasising that passenger safety and rights must remain uncompromised.
Was IndiGo flight chaos intentional?
“There seems to be some kind of intentional thing… Why has it come at that specific point of time? How did it lead us into that situation? This is something we are thoroughly investigating. And it will be followed by very strict & appropriate enforcement action,” Naidu said, signalling that the probe is exploring whether IndiGo’s system collapse was more than mere operational failure.
On the possibility of firing IndiGo’s top boss, Pieter Elbers, the minister was outright resolute. “If it comes to that, definitely I will do it… I will charge them with all the penalties that are there… For past seven days, I have not slept properly… My focus was on the passengers,” he said.
The minister also confirmed that the DGCA is not above scrutiny. With concerns raised in court including allegations that IndiGo “runs” the regulator, Naidu affirmed, “When the investigation is there, we are going to look into DGCA as well.”
On whether criminal liability may emerge from the inquiry, Naidu stated, “Criminal liability, whatever is there within the act and rules, everything will be taken, keeping into account the distress that has been faced by the passengers.”
On airfares skyrocketing amid crisis
With airfares skyrocketing to an unbelievable Rs 92,000 on the Delhi–Bengaluru route amid the meltdown, the minister acknowledged the anguish. “Whoever has faced these hardships, I also want to say that we regret the inconvenience that has happened. We sympathise with them,” he said, adding that compensation is also under examination: “We’ll take that into account.”
IndiGo back on its feet, our ops stable: CEO Pieter Elbers apologises
Nearly a week after Indian airports were engulfed in chaos due to hundreds of flight cancellations and delays across the country, IndiGo CEO Elbers apologised to the thousands of affected passengers for “letting them down” due to “major operational disruptions” of the airline.
“Following our earlier communication, I am here to share that our airline, IndiGo, is back on its feet, and our operations are stable. We’ve let you down when a major operational disruption happened, and we’re sorry for that. That beauty of air travel is that it brings together people, emotions, ambitions and aspirations, and we know that that you are travelling for various reasons,” CEO Pieter Elbers said in a statement released on Tuesday.
Reiterating the airline’s commitment to bring relief to the thousands of stranded customers, the CEO said, “Thousands of you could not travel, and we are profusely apologetic of that. While we cannot undo the cancellations, I want to reassure that our entire IndiGo team has been working very hard. First foremost for you, our valued customers. Initially, our first priority was to get all stranded and delayed customers safely to their destinations or back home.”
IndiGo has already issued full refunds to the affected passengers, and while the cancellations of flights and tickets cannot be undone, he said that the airline is working “very hard” to bring relief to passengers, including returning their baggage.
“Then we started our refunds, no questions asked. Lakhs of customers have already received their full refunds, and we continue to do so on a daily basis. Rest assured, we are fully committed in getting this done. Most of the bags have already been delivered back to your homes, and our teams are working very hard on delivering the remain ones very soon,” he said.
As per the CEO, IndiGo has steadily increased its flights since the chaos started, from 700 flights operated on December 5, to more than 1800 flights today, and normal operations are resuming across IndiGo’s 138 destinations.
“We also continue to address all customer needs. In parallel to address your needs as a customer, the restoration of IndiGo’s network and flights is being done on a war footing. On December 5, we could only fly 700 flights, thereafter, gradually yet steadily improving to 1500 on 6th, 1650 on 7th, 1800 yesterday, and today, more than 1800. As of yesterday, we are back to flying to all 138 destinations across our network, and our on-time performance has also been normalised,” CEO Elbers said.
“Earlier, we had indicated to normalise between the 10th and 15th of December. I can confirm now that today, as of December 9, our operations are fully stabilised, which means flights reflecting on our website are scheduled to operate with an adjusted network. So please continue to check our website for updates,” he added.
IndiGo is continuing to work in “full cooperation with the government,” and is looking internally to analyse the reasons for the chaos.
“And now that the immediate crisis is dealt with, we started to focus internally on what has led to this, lessons learned to be drawn and how to emerge stronger from this. While there’s still customer angst, I would also like to share that we’re getting heartwarming messages from our customers, and the people are back to booking on our flights, which has given us a big encouragement,” he said.