India’s Worst Aviation Crisis

Good Morning. We come to you with yet another special newsletter this Sunday, as perhaps the worst aviation crisis that India has seen, triggered by IndiGo’s “operational issues”, entered day five. While Friday was absolute and utter chaos, Saturday saw the government take action and pull the airline up over this royal mess.

While on Friday, flight ticket prices on some sectors were showing in lakhs of rupees, the government has capped airfares, bringing relief for passengers. But one still wonders whether that will hold.

Be that as it may, go on social media or speak to your friends and family who may have taken a flight on Friday or Saturday, and they would still tell you that going through an Indian airport feels like everyone’s worst nightmare.

IndiGo Crisis Day 5: Passengers Continue To Be Stranded As Govt Caps Airfare

What Do We Know For Sure? 

IndiGo on Saturday said in a statement that it was working to bring its operations back on track while also working on customer refunds on priority. 

“Today the number of cancellations has dropped below 850 flights, much lower compared to yesterday. We’re continuing to work towards reducing this number progressively over the next few days,” a statement put out by IndiGo read. 

Reuters reported that the airline cancelled at least 385 flights across sectors as the crisis continued for the fifth day. 

In another statement, IndiGo said that it had operated around 700 flights to 113 destinations on Friday. And on Saturday, by the end of the day, it would have operated around 1,500 flights, with “95% of network connectivity has already been re-established.” 

Reuters, meanwhile, reported that over 1,000 IndiGo flights were cancelled on Friday. 

IndiGo also said on its social media accounts that all refund and rescheduling requests will be processed between December 5 and 15. 

Despite all of this, social media was still filled with posts of passengers being stranded at airports or at least facing hours of delay before they could get on their flight. 

Capping Of Fares

The Minister of Civil Aviation, in light of skyrocketing airfares, put out an order directing all domestic scheduled airlines to cap their airfares, regardless of whether passengers booked tickets directly through the airlines or third-party platforms. 

Here’s what the capped fares looked like: 

• Upto 500 kms: Rs 7,500

• 500-1,000 kms: Rs 12,000

• 1,000-1,500 kms: Rs 15,000

• Above 1,500 kms: Rs 18,000

The ministry ordered all scheduled airlines to extend “maximum possible support” to passengers. 

It said that this capping should hold till airfares stabilise. 

What’s Else Is In The News? 

While Delhi Airport said on the social media platform X that flight operations were “steadily resuming”, Reuters reported news of cancellations continued to pour in from other sectors. 

The government also introduced special trains in light of the crisis. PTI reported that 84 special trains were being run on Saturday to help passengers, who have had their flights cancelled, reach their destinations.  

Air India and Air India Express, meanwhile, said that their fares had been “proactively capped” for economy class airfares on non-stop domestic flights. 

“We are aware of screenshots of last-minute itineraries with one-stop or two-stop flights or a combination of economy and premium economy or business cabins taken from third-party platforms. It is not technically possible to cap all such permutations, but we are engaging such platforms to exercise oversight,” the Air India spokesperson said. 

What Next? 

The Core had reported on Friday that pilots' associations was calling for action against the airline. On Saturday, aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu told NDTV that the fault over implementing FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) was with IndiGo. 

Naidu said that there will be an action against IndiGo after an inquiry. “It's not could be, it will be. There will be action on them, because this is not something which we want to entertain. We are very clear that the focus of the ministry is the passenger... It is our job, our responsibility, to ensure that these kinds of incidents don't happen next time. So, we are very, very clear that action is going to follow the inquiry,” NDTV quoted Naidu as saying.

✍️ Zinal Dedhia, Kudrat Wadhwa, Shubhangi Bhatia | ✂️ Rohini Chatterji | 🎧 Joshua Thomas

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