India’s aviation regulator has issued a show-cause notice to IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers, holding him responsible for a week-long operational breakdown that left thousands of passengers stranded and led to nearly 1,000 flight cancellations in a single day.
Calling it one of its strongest actions in recent years, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the notice follows mounting public anger over “massive disruptions resulting in severe inconvenience, hardship and distress to passengers.”
The regulator said the crisis stemmed from IndiGo’s failure to prepare for the rollout of revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) for pilots — rules that were announced months ago and took effect on November 1. IndiGo’s inability to rework its rosters and resources for the new duty-rest requirements resulted in large-scale delays, cancellations, and crew shortages across its 138-destination network.
“It has been observed that scheduled flights of M/s IndiGo Airlines have recently faced massive disruptions resulting in severe inconvenience, hardship and distress to passengers,” the DGCA said in its notice.
“It has also been noticed that the primary cause of said flight disruptions is non-provisioning of adequate arrangements to cater to the revised requirements for smooth implementation of the approved FDTL scheme.”
The DGCA has accused the airline of failing to plan for the updated cockpit crew regulations, violating Rule 42A of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, and breaching multiple Civil Aviation Requirements (CARs) that govern duty periods. The notice also says IndiGo neglected to provide mandatory information, facilities, and assistance to passengers affected by delays and cancellations.
“As the CEO, you are responsible for ensuring effective management of the airline,” it states. “You have failed in your duty to ensure timely arrangements for conduct of reliable operations and the availability of requisite facilities to passengers.”
The CEO must respond within 24 hours, after which the DGCA may proceed “ex parte” and consider penalties ranging from monetary sanctions to restrictions on operations. Following five days of travel chaos, IndiGo said it had restored about 95% of its network by Saturday, operating flights to 135 of its 138 destinations. The carrier expects to operate more than 1,500 flights through the day.
IndiGo again apologised for the week-long disruption, saying it remained “committed to build back the trust of our customers.” On Friday, the airline reported its worst single-day cancellations, scrapping nearly 1,000 flights. It managed to operate “a little above 700 flights” as part of what it called a network-wide “reboot.”
“The main objective was to reboot the network, systems, and rosters so that we could start afresh today with a higher number of flights, improved stability,” a spokesperson said.
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