'DGCA's failure caused this crisis': Mohandas Pai blasts aviation regulator for IndiGo chaos

Former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai on Tuesday hit out at aviation regulator DGCA for the IndiGo crisis, suggesting that it failed to act in time. He also suggested that the regulator did not review the preparedness of IndiGo even as its flights were getting delayed from November end.

"Minister @RamMNK can you please inform citizens what was DGCA doing till the crisis blew up," Pai wrote on X. "Flights were getting delayed from end November. Were they reviewing the preparedness of IndiGo? Why were they caught by surprise? How reviews happened before this? This failure of regulators leading to this crisis needs to be explained."

Tagging the Prime Minister's Office, the veteran investor said that the PMO has caused great pain to citizens for no fault of theirs. "The concerned officials should be held accountable for their failure too @narendramodi @AmitShah."

Pai reacted to Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu's statement earlier today. Naidu, in a detailed post, said that during the last week, many passengers faced severe inconvenience due to IndiGo's internal mismanagement of crew rosters, flight schedules and inadequate communication. "While the enquiry and necessary actions are underway, another meeting with IndiGo's top management was held to review the stabilisation measures," he wrote.

IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers was summoned to the Aviation Ministry earlier today to provide an update. "He confirmed that 100% of the refunds for flights affected till 6th December have been completed," the minister said. "A strict instruction to expedite the completion of the remaining refunds and baggage handover was given."

The civil aviation ministry has ordered IndiGo to reduce its flight schedule by 10 per cent. Naidu said that the curtailment in the overall IndiGo routes will help in stabilising the operations and lead to reduced cancellations. "While abiding with it, IndiGo will continue to cover all its destinations as before."

The minister also informed that IndiGo has been instructed to comply with all the directives, including fare capping and passenger convenience measures without any exception.

The 10% curtailment is double of what the sector regulator DGCA had ordered on Monday. As part of the winter schedule for 2025-26, IndiGo has been operating over 2,200 flights per day. The airline, on its part, said there was steady improvement across the network and it had reinstated flights to all 138 stations. It flew more than 1,800 flights on Tuesday, which will go up to nearly 1,900 on Wednesday, IndiGo said in a statement.