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Pilot bodies have alleged deep-rooted corruption in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Ministry of Civil Aviation before the parliamentary panel that met to discuss the operational meltdown at IndiGo since early December, which led to the cancellation of over 5,000 flights affecting at least 12.5 lakh passengers.
The department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture chaired by Sanjay K. Jha called a meeting to review the impact of revised rest and duty norms for pilots that triggered the large-scale flight cancellations because of gaps in planning adequate crew.
Officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, DGCA, senior executives of IndiGo, including its Chief Operations Officer Isidre Porqueras, and Senior Vice President (Flight Operations), Ashim Mitra, and various pilot associations such as Airlines Pilots Association India (ALPA-I), Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) and Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) were present. The meeting lasted nearly three hours.
During the meeting, it is learnt that ALPA’s president Captain Sam Thomas said there was “corruption at every level” in the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the DGCA following which members of the panel asked them to furnish proof.
Questions have been raised on how the regulator granted IndiGo permission to deploy 10% more flights in the winter schedule and whether it assessed the airline’s preparedness for implementing the new duty norms.
The pilot bodies also discussed the exacting conditions under which they have to perform their flying duties and how airlines have been misinterpreting rules in their own favour, sources said.
IndiGo reiterated that the large flight cancellations were due to a “combination of factors”, which it has explained in its earlier statements as minor technical glitches, winter schedule changes, adverse weather, and aviation system congestion as well as implementation of new rest and duty norms for pilots.
The DGCA was asked whether it had consulted all sides before implementing the norms, to which it answered in the affirmative and added that airlines were also granted selective exemptions on the norms that came into effect from November 1 to make it easier for them to proceed with their implementation.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation informed the panel members that an enquiry was being conducted into IndiGo’s operational collapse and a four-member committee was appointed to identify the underlying causes.
The parliamentary panel will be meeting again on the matter once the Ministry’s enquiry is concluded.