MUMBAI: India issued a show-cause notice to the CEO of the nation’s biggest carrier after cancellations affected almost half of its flights, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at various airports.
IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers was asked to explain the “large-scale operational failures” which indicated “significant lapses in planning, oversight, and resource management, and is prima facie non-compliance on the part of the airline,” according to the Saturday notice from the director general of Civil Aviation.
The disruptions – attributed to pilot shortages – began Tuesday.
On Friday, IndiGo had canceled more than 1,000 flights across India, and about 850 more on Saturday.
Elbers said in a video message on social media X may normalise later in the week.
The show-cause notice held the CEO responsible for ensuring effective management of the airline, adding “you have failed in your duty to ensure timely arrangements for conduct of reliable operations and the availability of requisite facilities to the passengers.”
Disruption in IndiGo’s services has made the ongoing crisis one of the country’s worst air disruptions, with the carrier accounting for two-thirds of the domestic market operating about 2,200 flights daily.
India has also become the world’s third-largest domestic aviation market, fueled by a rising middle class that has pushed up demand faster than airlines can grow.
The authorities asked the IndiGo CEO to show cause within 24 hours after its notice “as to why appropriate enforcement action should not be initiated” against him for the violations.
“Failure to submit your reply within the stipulated period shall result in the matter being decided ex parte,” the notice said.
Chaotic scenes unfolded in airports following the cancellations, as people missed important family events and business meetings.
Hundreds of angry passengers thronged the gates at the Mumbai airport, shouting curses at IndiGo, and caused delays to other carriers.
A couple in the southern state of Karnataka attended their own wedding reception online after being stranded, the NDTV news channel reported.
IndiGo said in a statement today that a crisis management group set up by its board “has been meeting regularly to monitor the situation and is being constantly updated by the management of the measures being undertaken to restore normal operations”.
The show-cause notice came after authorities ordered an inquiry on Friday to “examine what went wrong at IndiGo, determine accountability” and recommend measures to avert such disruptions in the future.
Following the fiasco, the civil aviation imposed price restrictions to prevent “unusually high airfares being charged by certain airlines”.
The authorities capped prices at 7,500 rupees (US$83.34) per ticket for trips of up to 500km, and 18,000 rupees for those exceeding 1,500km.
Meanwhile, Indian Railways said it was adding 116 coaches to its 37 trains from Saturday.
The state-owned railway system was also running four special train services.
