Over 10 lakh flyers hit by IndiGo's December meltdown; nearly 500 flights cancelled on Monday
NEW DELHI: Over 10 lakh passengers missed their flights during IndiGo's December meltdown even by conservative estimates, it has emerged. The shocking extent of the chaos that were unleashed by problems in Indigo'ss crew rostering and internal planning systems , according to Union Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu, came to light on a day when the airline cancelled nearly 500 flights. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is currently examining the airline's response to a show-cause notice issued to its CEO before taking any final action, sources said. Officials from the Ministry of Civil Aviation said that between December 1 and 7 a total of 5,86,705 ticket PNRs (Passenger Name Records) were cancelled. Since each PNR can include multiple passengersup to nine in standard bookings and more in bulk bookings, the actual number of impacted passengers is significantly higher. Including cancellations from late November, a total of 9,55,591 PNRs were affected between November 21 and December 7. An IndiGo spokesperson said that by Monday, the airline had restored operations across all 138 destinations on its network. In a statement, the airline noted that it operated over 1,800 flights on Monday, up from 1,650 on Sunday, achieving 90% on-time performance compared with 75% the previous day. Several internal processes were expedited to resume normal operations and reduce passenger inconvenience, the spokesperson said. IndiGo also said that ot has refunded 827 crore to customers for cancellations up to December 15. IndiGo to face 'significant' financial damage due to flight cancellations and refunds Regarding baggage handling, the airline said 50% of delayed luggage had already been delivered, with over 4,500 bags returned to customers and the remainder expected within 36 hours. Additionally, the airline arranged more than 9,500 hotel rooms and nearly 10,000 cabs and buses for affected passengers between December 1 and 7, assisting over 2 lakh customers daily through various communication channels. For the first time, IndiGo acknowledged sending advance notifications about cancellations, stating that all changes to Monday's schedule were communicated to passengers a day in advance. Is IndiGo too big to fail? And what about lack of pilots leading to the flight chaos theory? Pinpointing exact reason not realistic, claims Indigo Meanwhile, regulator, DGCA is probing the reasons behind the unprecedent meltdown at India's largest airline that has an almost 65% share in the domestic market. The DGCA said IndiGo had requested a fortnight to conduct a comprehensive Root Cause Analysis (RCA) of the disruption. A preliminary explanation was submitted by the airline on Sunday evening, and the regulator is reviewing it before deciding on enforcement action. IndiGo told the DGCA that pinpointing the exact causes of the disruption was ealistically not possible at this stage due to the scale and complexity of operations. The airline cited the DGCA manual, which allows a 15-day response period for show-cause notices, as the basis for the extended timeline. In its preliminary explanation, IndiGo attributed the disruptions to a combination of factors: minor technical glitches, schedule changes linked to the start of the winter season, adverse weather, increased congestion in the aviation system, and implementation of updated crew rostering rules under the Flight Duty Time Limitation Phase II. The airline said these compounding factors caused a drop in on-time network performance, which in turn affected crew availability. IndiGo reportedly took the drastic measure of rebooting its network ion December 5, by cancelling a significant number of flights to recover stranded passengers, ease airport congestion, and reposition crew and aircraft. The airline expressed regret over the inconvenience caused to passengers, describing the disruption as the result of an unfortunate and unforeseeable confluence of multiple factors. 'Two days at airport and no one to help': Passengers vent after IndiGo cancels all flights from Delhi
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