(MENAFN- AsiaNet News)

Despite the relaxation of flight duty time limitations rules, chaos across multiple Indian airports continued on Sunday morning, with atleast 400 flights cancelled across the country. Major air terminals, mainly at urban centres, have been hit the hardest, with a majority of cancellations concentrated at Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Delhi airports. Amid the chaos in airports, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has served a show cause notice to IndiGo's accountable manager.

Airport-Wise Disruption Details

The worst hit, Telangana's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad saw 115 flights cancelled today, with 54 arrivals, and 61 departures affected.

According to a statement from the Delhi Airport, at least 59 departures and 50 arrivals totalling to 109 flights have been cancelled today.

Kolkata saw atleast 76 flights affected, with 53 departure cancelations, and 23 arrivals cancelled. According to a statement from the NSCBI Kolkata airport, between midnight and 10 AM today, out of the 43 departures, 14 have been cancelled. Out of the 17 arrivals scheduled, 2 had been cancelled, and 2 flights had been delayed for more than 30 minutes.

Ahmedabad, another major urban centre for air travel, saw relatively low cancellations at 20 flights, with 12 arrivals and 8 departures cancelled. However, the airport also clarified that there were "no issues in terminal and airside," with passenger facilitation being taken care of.

Out of a combined 226 arrivals and departures scheduled, atleast 33 per cent of IndiGo flights stood cancelled. In Pune, around 25 flights have been cancelled today, with flights whih were supposed to go across the country.

Meanwhile in the northeast region, Agartala airport saw 6 IndiGo flights cancelled, with flights which were supposed to depart to Kolkata, Delhi, Guwahati, and Bangalore and Imphal.

In South India, Trichy airport saw 5 arrivals cancelled and 6 departures cancelled, with only 1 arrival and 3 departure flights operating till Sunday afternoon.

DGCA Takes Action

Amid the large scale flight disruptions, the DGCA has served two show cause notices, with one being issued to the airline's CEO Pieter Elbers on Saturday, and another to the "Accountable Manager".

The regulatory authority has said that such operational failures indicate "significant lapses in planning, oversight, and resource management, and is prima facie non-compliance on the part of the airport with the provisions of Rule 42A of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, and the provisions of CAR Section 7, Series J, Party III Issue III (Rev 2) on Duty Period, Flight Duty Period, Flight Time Limitations and Prescribed Rest Periods - Flight crew engaged in Scheduled Air Transport Operations," the show cause notice read.

Whereas, as the Post Holder Accountable Manager, you are responsible for ensuring overall operations are strictly in accordance with the approved manuals and in terms of para 8 of CAR Section 3, Series C, Part II and para 1 of its Appendix 3, the regulator said.

The notice comes two days after IndiGo was exempted from one of the rules of the newly introduced rules for pilot safety, namely the rule which prevented airlines from substituting pilot's rest period as a leave.

Government Monitoring the Situation

Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Cooperation Murlidhar Mohol said that they are closely monitoring the situation and have taken immediate action against the airline for not adhering to Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL). Mohol assured that the government is taking the matter very seriously and that action will be taken after the investigation committee's report is submitted.

According to sources, Parliament's Transport, Tourism & Culture committee is likely to summon representatives of IndiGo too.

IndiGo's Response and Recovery Plan

Meanwhile, IndiGo confirms that they have showed "further significant Operational improvement" and is "progressively restoring network stability" a day after they took up a system reboot for managing the cancelled flights, thereby improving the situation for passengers today.

"Following the recent operational disruptions, IndiGo confirms that we are establishing further significant and sustained improvements across our network. The first step to this was taken yesterday, today next steps have been taken on this with lesser cancellations and a higher On Time Performance. Also, cancellations were made at an earlier stage, allowing us to inform our customers timelier," according the airline's press statement.

As of December 7, IndiGo said they are on track to 1650 flights, over 150 more flights (from 1500) from Saturday. This has translated to over a 75 per cent on time performance, up from around 30 per cent on Saturday. Similarly, refund and luggage process is I "full action, both for direct bookings and indirect bookings"

The airline has reiterated confidence its timeline of stabilising operations network by December 10, after giving a window between December 10- 15.

An IndiGo spokesperson said, "We are grateful for the patience, trust and understanding shown by our customers and the tireless efforts of our employees and partners. We continue to work closely with all authorities and stakeholders to ensure a swift return to full normalcy."

The airline said that they had formed a "Crisis Management Group" on day 1 of flight disrupts. The Board received a detailed briefing from the Management on the nature and extent of the crisis before holding a closed-door session exclusively for Board members. (ANI)

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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