IndiGo flight cancellations: Govt appoints officers to monitor situation at airports

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has deployed officers to monitor the situation at airports due to the disruptions in the flight operations of IndiGo that has left tens of thousands of passengers stranded. The ministry said officers at the level of Deputy Secretary, Director, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation have been deployed.

These officers would visit all the major airports in the next two-three days to assess the on-ground situation, the government said. The officers would look into:

• Flight delays and cancellations
• Congestion at airports
• Queue management at check-in, security and boarding gates
• Availability of airline and airport manpower for operational duties
• Manning of helpdesks by airlines
• Effective information dissemination
• Availability of essential facilities like drinking water etc

Apart from these the officers would also look into special assistance for senior citizens, children and pregnant women, sufficient seating arrangements, availability of senior manager of airlines at the airports, toilet cleaning and hygiene measures, availability of housekeeping teams, effective control rooms, grievance handling by airlines, and more.

Meanwhile, on the eighth consecutive day, IndiGo ended up cancelling 180 flights from Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The number of cancellations at Bengaluru airport stood at 121.

Union Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu said that the government will reduce IndiGo’s winter slots and give them to its rival airlines. "We will definitely reduce the number of routes, which are in IndiGo's (winter) schedule. The order to this effect will be issued. This will be a kind of penalty on the airline as they will not be able to fly on those (curtailed) routes," Naidu told DD News on Monday.

Naidu said when IndiGo demonstrates the ability to handle its operations smoothly, the slots will be returned to IndiGo.