No Same Day Cancellations For Last 3 Days, On‑Time Performance Back To Normal: IndiGo As Airline Crisis Settles

New Delhi: A week after India faced a major airline crisis fueled by massive flight disruptions by IndiGo, the airline has now declared that it has not reported any same day cancellations for the last three days and its on‑time performance is now back to its usual standards, it announced in a press statement.

The statement also read that all destinations in its network is now fully connected since December 8 and its operation has stabilised since December 9. It is also expected to operate more than 1,950 flights on Thursdays with approximately 300, 000 customers, it added.

“IndiGo continues to strengthen its operations, improving its services day by day to now operating 1,900+ flights that seamlessly connect all 138 destinations across our network. Our commitment to operational excellence has led to significant efficiency gains, and our on-time performance has been restored to top-tier industry standards,” it read.

The airline listed that it had operated more than 1700 flights on December 8, more than 1800 on December 9, and more than 1900 on December 10. On December 8, the airline faced one same day cancellation and on December 10, it faced two. It noted that all these 'negligible' cancellation were "due to weather, technical, other external or uncontrollable factors."

Earlier on Wednesday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)  ordered immediate on-site inspections at eleven airports across the country including Nagpur, Jaipur, Bhopal, Surat, Tirupati, Vijayawada, Shirdi, Cochin, Lucknow, Amritsar and Dehradun. The order stated that officials have been asked to visit the airport within 2-3 days and submit a comprehensive report to the DGCA within 24 hours of inspection.

The DGCA has also come up with an oversight team to monitor IndiGo operations, including total fleet, pilot numbers, crew utilisation and unplanned leaves.

On Tuesday, IndiGo's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Pieter Elbers, again issued an apology to all its affected passengers for "letting them down" due to "major operational disruptions." He also announced that the airline is "back on its feet." 

"Following our earlier communication, I am here to share that our airline, IndiGo, is back on its feet, and our operations are stable. We've let you down when a major operational disruption occurred, and we apologise for that. That beauty of air travel is that it brings together people, emotions, ambitions and aspirations, and we know that you are travelling for various reasons," CEO Pieter Elbers said in a statement.

Reiterating that IndiGo is committed to ensure relief to the thousands of stranded customers, Elbers said, “Thousands of you could not travel, and we are profusely apologetic for that. While we cannot undo the cancellations, I want to reassure you that our entire IndiGo team has been working very hard. First, and foremost, for you, our valued customers. Initially, our priority was to get all stranded and delayed customers safely to their destinations or back home.” 

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