Senior officials from the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Airports Authority of India, and the Ministry of Civil Aviation met with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) late on Tuesday to discuss IndiGo’s recent flight disruptions. The meeting focused on reviewing measures to address passenger complaints related to refunds, missing baggage, and crowd management at airports.
Officials updated the PMO on steps taken so far, including a mandatory 10% schedule cancellation, reinforcing the requirement for airlines to inform passengers 72 hours in advance, the creation of an investigation team, and an order directing IndiGo to share details and the root cause of the disruptions. The PMO convened the meeting as the country faced an unprecedented cancellation of 5,000 flights over the past 10 days.
Government Takes Stern Action
Union Parliamentary and Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday also highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s concern regarding the chaos caused by the mass cancellation of IndiGo flights. Rijiju said the Prime Minister stressed that passengers must not face inconvenience under any circumstances. “During the NDA parliamentary meeting the PM told NDA MPs that people should not be troubled, and face inconvenience. Rules and laws are good but in order to correct the system it is not right to harass people,” Rijiju said.
On Tuesday, the airline stated that it would operate 1,900 flights on Wednesday. Following the mandated 10% reduction, IndiGo will now have between 1,980 and 2,070 daily flying slots.
So far, the airline has issued ₹829 crore in refunds to passengers, and 4,500 of the 9,000 missing bags have been returned to customers.
Competition Commission of India (CCI)
Meanwhile, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) is likely to initiate an investigation into IndiGo to examine whether the country’s largest airline violated antitrust rules, particularly by misusing its market dominance to limit services or impose unfair conditions on passengers.
Under Section 4 of the Competition Act, a company with a dominant position is prohibited from abusing its power by imposing unfair conditions on the sale of goods or services, limiting production or services, or treating consumers unfairly, among other practices. The law empowers the CCI to begin an inquiry on its own, based on stakeholder complaints, or following references from the central or state governments.
IndiGo, which holds around 65% of India’s domestic aviation market, has cancelled more than 5,000 flights this month due to a severe pilot shortage after failing to comply with new rest rules.