NEW DELHI: IndiGo on Friday hired a third-party aviation specialist to investigate the “root cause analysis of the recent operational disruption”, the airline’s board said in a statement. The decision follows the recommendation of the Crisis Management Group (CMG) set up by the IndiGo board soon after the operational disruptions began in the first week of December. “Captain Illson brings over four decades of aviation experience at the FAA, ICAO, IATA and major global airlines. With an illustrious career in international aviation, he offers extensive expertise in aviation strategy, tailored consulting, safety leadership, global standard setting and new aircraft technologies,” the statement said. The expert is expected to begin work immediately and submit a comprehensive report to the Board.“The aim is to conduct an independent root cause analysis of the recent operational disruption, in addition to opportunities for improvement,” the airline added.The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is continuing to probe whether IndiGo violated competition norms, PTI reported, citing a senior official.The decision comes after IndiGo’s operations almost collapsed last week due to non-compliance with new manning duty norms. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) today also fired four flight operations inspectors who were responsible for monitoring the airline.The problems for the airline stemmed from the airline’s failure to hire additional pilots despite knowing that new flight duty time limit (FDTL) rules, which affect crew schedules, were due to take effect on July 1 and were later changed to November 1. The revised norms would have required more pilots, but IndiGo has not expanded its pilot pool. As a result, the DGCA had to defer the new FDTL for Airbus A320 aircraft until February 10, 2026 to avoid widespread cancellations like earlier this month.“IndiGo was in discussion with the DGCA about the new FDTL and was aware of the increased need for pilots. Yet they did not hire pilots. What happened is inevitable,” said people in the know. Even after the operational crisis, IndiGo has maintained that there is no shortage of pilots. The DGCA has now directed the airline to increase pilot recruitment.The situation has also highlighted internal tensions within the airline. “There is complete disparity and mistrust between the pilots and the management. The airline’s Operations Control Center (OCC) is extremely unpopular among IndiGo pilots. An additional payment was made for night landings which was stopped for a while and so the pilots started refusing. The new contract restricted flying. A number of things happened which only widened the gap between pilots and management,” sources said.Meanwhile, IndiGo earlier said that refunds for most of the canceled flights have already been processed and the remaining transactions are expected to happen soon.
