The aviation safety regulator, DGCA, has relieved four flight operations inspectors (FOIs) amid major disruptions in IndiGo’s operations, which led to thousands of flight cancellations and left lakhs of passengers stranded at airports.
On Friday alone, the airline cancelled more than 50 flights from Bengaluru Airport.
Who are FOIs?
FOIs are senior officials within the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, working as part of its regulatory and safety oversight functions, often deployed to monitor airline operations.
“Consequent upon approval of the Competent Authority, the following FOIs under various categories, on contract basis, in DGCA are hereby relieved from DGCA with immediate effect to join their respective parent organizations,” reads a DGCI order.
The officials who have been relieved — Rish Raj Chatterjee, Seema Jhamnani, Anil Kumar Pokhariyal and Priyam Kaushik — were engaged on a contract basis.
These officials ensure aviation safety by inspecting, auditing, and certifying airlines and personnel, such as pilots, dispatchers, and cabin crew, to meet strict regulatory standards. They verify various regulations and oversee training, flight standards, and accident prevention measures in India.
The troubled airline had already cancelled more than 200 flights from Delhi and Bengaluru on Thursday.
Meanwhile, IndiGo said it is operating over 2,000 flights on Friday as per its revised 'scaled down' schedule.
Under the winter schedule, which commenced in the last week of October and will run through the last week of March next year, IndiGo was allowed to operate 15,014 flights per week, or 2,144 per day, on domestic routes.
Earlier on Thursday, the DGCA intensified its scrutiny of IndiGo by deploying officials to the airline’s headquarters to closely monitor operations, while an inquiry panel questioned CEO Pieter Elbers.
Elbers, who faced the DGCA-appointed inquiry panel on Thursday, has been directed to return for further questioning on Friday.
The four-member panel comprises Joint Director General Sanjay Brahamane, Deputy Director General Amit Gupta, senior Flight Operations Inspector Kapil Manglik, and FOI Lokesh Rampal, with a mandate to identify the root causes of widespread operational disruptions at the leading domestic carrier.
The committee's mandate includes assessing manpower planning, fluctuating rostering systems, and the airline's preparedness to implement the latest duty period and rest norms for pilots, which came into effect from November 1 this year.
