Indigo flight status highlights: Aviation ministry orders 10% cut in airline's operations

IndiGo flight status LIVE updates: The Airline Pilots' Association of India (ALPA India) will brief the Parliamentry standing committee on its concerns on the flight duty norms, pilot fatigue and risks in the aviation sector.

“ALPA India has been officially invited by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture to present pilots' concerns on FDTL non-compliance, duty-time violations, and operational stress,” the body said in a statement, as quoted by news agency ANI.

IndiGo flight status LIVE updates: Congress MP KC Venugopal on Tuesday said there were “hidden things” happening in the IndiGo crisis and sought answers from the government. "There are hidden things happening in this matter. There should be an investigation. We need a full answer on what action to take. People in our country are troubled," Venugopal told reporters outside Parliament.

IndiGo flight disruptions have affected more than 40,000 passengers at the Mumbai airport since December 1, MIAL said on Tuesday. It further said that 905 IndiGo flights had been between December 1 and December 8 at Mumbai airport, and another 2,66,567 travellers faced inordinate delays, PTI news agency reported.

MIAL further said that during this period, IndiGo had deployed a total of 3,171 flights, of which it could operate only 2,266.

Civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu, in a post on X, said another meeting of Indigo's top management was held on Tuesday to review the stabilization measures. This comes even as the airline saw thousands of flight cancellations, causing inconvenience to passengers.

Naidu said the situation came to pass due to “Indigo’s internal mismanagement of crew rosters, flight schedules and inadequate communication.”

Indigo CEO Pieter Elbers was summoned by the Civil Aviation Ministry on Tuesday to provide an update on the flight cancellations. He assured the ministry that 100 per cent of the flight refunds till December 6 have been completed, minister Ram Mohan Naidu said in a post on X.

Several hilarious memes took over the internet amid the IndiGo flight disruptions, as passengers found a sense of relief in putting out cheeky jokes over the frustration against the airline.

One clip making the rounds on the internet shows passengers playing 'Chidi Udd' at the airport, and, no price for guessing, the unlucky loser was the one who lifted his finger for 'IndiGo'.

"Fear of height is vertigo. Fear of flight is Indigo," said a post by the page 'Laughing Colours' on Facebook, doing its bit to take humour to new heights.

Mumbai Youth Congress activists on Tuesday protested outside Terminal 2 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport against the disruptions in IndiGo services.

The party workers, led by Mumbai Youth Congress president Zeenat Shabreen, raised slogans and demonstrated inside the terminal, accusing IndiGo of arbitrary flight cancellations, prolonged delays, lack of information to passengers and "humiliating behaviour" by staff.

"This is not just negligence; it is an attack on passenger rights. We will not tolerate zero accountability from the country's largest airline while people suffer," Shabreen was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

In its updated order, the DGCA said it has "observed that the airline has not been able to adequately manage its operational resources, including aircraft and pilot crew".

"Accordingly, the approved winter Schedule of lndiGo be reviewed and curtailed by minimum 10%. The existing show-cause notice may therefore be suitably modified, and a fresh notice may be issued to lndiGo, with the situation to remain under periodic review for further necessary action," it added.

IndiGo airlines flight cancellations: India's largest domestic carrier on Tuesday cancelled more than 400 flights, with Delhi and Bengaluru being the worst-affected cities.

From Delhi alone, 152 flights were cancelled, 121 from Bengaluru, 58 flights from Hyderabad, 41 from Chennai, 16 from Ahmedabad, 4 flights from Thiruvananthapuram, and 3 from Mumbai.

The Northern Railway's Jammu division on Tuesday announced a special Vande Bharat train between New Delhi and Udhampur for three days, starting December 12, to facilitate stranded passengers amid the ongoing IndiGo flight cancellations.

"Jammu Division operates special trains in emergency situations for the convenience and safety of passengers. Currently, due to increasing number of passengers caused by frequent flight cancellations, the division has decided to operate a special Vande Bharat train between New Delhi and Shaheed Captain Tushar Mahajan (Udhampur)," Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Uchit Singhal said.

Congress leader Supriya Shrinate, while speaking to news agency ANI, slammed IndiGo amid the ongoing flight disruptions, saying that its flights are available for the owners of the Goa nightclub, where a massive fire killed 24 people on Saturday night.

"The IndiGo flights are not working for regular passengers, but the nightclub in Goa, which did not have a license and where 25 people died, they ran off to Thailand through IndiGo flights... There is such a big monopoly in the aviation sector that you (the aviation minister) had to kneel," she said.

Madhu Sudan Shankar, joint secretary of the ministry of civil aviation, said that the most affected cities by IndiGo flight disruptions from the Mumbai airport on Tuesday were, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Goa and Lucknow.

Civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu said in a post on X that IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers was summoned to the ministry on Tuesday as well, to provide an update on the ongoing disruptions.

"He confirmed that 100% of the refunds for flights affected till 6th December have been completed. A strict instruction to expedite the completion of the remaining refunds and baggage handover was given," Naidu said.

Naidu further said that IndiGo has been instructed to comply with all the directives of the ministry, including fare capping and passenger convenience measures, without any exception.

Civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu said that the ministry considers it necessary to curtail IndiGo's overall routes, "which will help in stabilising the airline's operations and lead to reduced cancellations".

"A curtailment of 10% has been ordered. While abiding with it, IndiGo will continue to cover all its destinations as before," he wrote in a post on X.

Company secretaries' apex body, ICSI, on Tuesday cited governance lapses at IndiGo, calling for stronger governance practices to ensure proactive risk identification, timely intervention and transparent communication.

In a statement, the institute flagged the "recent governance lapse highlighted by the IndiGo incident".

ICSI President Dhananjay Shukla said the IndiGo incident serves as a reminder for corporates and professionals to ensure sound governance frameworks that can create as well as preserve shareholder value along with public trust, news agency PTI reported.

Congress MP Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy told news agency ANI, "The civil aviation minister is trying to say that IndiGo is coping up with the situation and it will come into normal functioning within a few days... Until now, he hasn't clearly explained where the system went wrong with the IndiGo and what action to take on IndiGo?"

"What compensation are they giving to the people... He didn't even answer whether there is any mechanism which is going to come into place to regularise the airfares... Otherwise, the people of this country will be exploited by airlines again and again. Major issues have not been answered. He only formally read what he had brought, a note, and then he just left. We walked out of the House because we wanted proper justification to be done to the people," he added.

IndiGo said that around 800 pieces of luggage are still pending at 45 destinations, adding that they are yet to be delivered to the passengers.

In its latest press statement, IndiGo said that it is operating more than 1,800 flights on Tuesday, connecting all 138 stations in its network. The airline added that it plans to fly nearly 1,900 flights on Wednesday, December 10.

"We have optimised our operations, and our on-time performance is also back to normal levels," it added.

IndiGo said that it is set to deliver 8,500 stranded luggage to its passengers by 7 pm on Tuesday. "By 7 PM, (IndiGo) will deliver 8,500 pieces of luggage to travellers. Luggage delivery has been completed at 49 out of 94 destinations," the airline's statement was quoted by news agency ANI.

It further said that around 800 pieces of luggage are still pending at 45 destinations.

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi slammed the Centre over the IndiGo flight disruptions and said, "In the IndiGo matter, statements were made by the government in both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha over the past two days. The government has put the entire responsibility on the owner of a private company, as if it has no responsibility of its own, as if the regulator, the DGCA (Director General of Civil Aviation), has no role at all."

Speaking to news agency PTI, he said that thousands of flights were cancelled, and thousands of people had to stay at airports in extremely poor conditions. "They spent huge amounts of money, and the law the government had introduced for pilots' welfare was also changed, with a complete U-turn taken on it. So neither pilots received relief, nor customers, nor did the government accept any responsibility," he added.

Congress leader KC Venugopal said he thinks that there are "hidden aspects" in the IndiGo flight disruptions issue, adding that such mishaps by the airline "need to be investigated".

"We need concrete answers from the ministry on what steps will be taken," he added.

IndiGo cancelled 422 flights from six major airports on Tuesday.

Of these, the number of flights cancelled from each airport is as follows:

• Delhi airport: 152 cancellations
• Bengaluru airport: 121 cancellations
• Hyderabad airport: 58 cancellations
• Mumbai airport: 41 cancellations
• Chennai airport: Over 50 cancellations

CPI National Secretary, Narayana, has demanded action against IndiGo, saying that this is the "right time" to take action against them. He said that he was making this demand "because they (IndiGo) are not following any guidelines".

IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers said that the airline is continuously working with the government in "full cooperation".

Now that the immediate crisis is dealt with, he said, "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 like to also share that we're getting heartwarming messages from our customers and the people are back to booking our flights, which is giving us big encouragement," he added.

Elbers requested that people keep the faith in IndiGo, saying that it is still the airline they have known it to be.