MERE curtailment of IndiGo flights by 10% may not serve the purpose the Government might have had while specifying the annual quota for the airline. Possibly, something bigger should be slapped on IndiGo management so that not just that one airline but the entire civil aviation sector of the country gets the right message. For, whatever has happened by way of cancellation of thousands of flights within the space of just a few days by the country’s biggest airline was tremendously negative in form and content -- and clearly against the interest of the larger Indian society and the country. Though no indication has so far emerged to suggest a foul-play. Yet, after joining the dots, we certainly feel that a deeper, no-nonsense investigation must be conducted to know how the issue blew out of control in just swift 24 hours.

 

The terms of reference of the investigation -- if at all it is ordered by the Government -- should not be restricted to what happened in the airline; it should be expanded to cover whether the bureaucracy in the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) also faltered at critical points and helped the crisis to grow from bad to worse. There can be many questions that the DGCA must answer -- as regards its control over the aviation ecosystem, as regards favouritism to IndiGo Airlines, as regards non-adherence to the norm it has created for smooth running of the domestic aviation -- passengers or freight ... ! All those dimensions need to be covered in the investigation -- if at all it is allowed to take place. It is unfortunate that the issue that led the IndiGo management to cancel literally thousands of flights when it had already issued tickets to would-be passengers. Even when the flights were being cancelled left-right-and-centre, the airline did not stop sale of tickets to prospective users of the service. As a result, the pile up of unused tickets was astoundingly high -- forcing the Government to order the airline to return the money to the ticket-buyers post-haste.

 

What needs to be noted about the IndiGo airline is its refusal to follow norms the Government released from time to time. It refused to follow the the general guidelines for usage of pilots’ services in 50-hour or 70-hour contracts for flying in a month. While most airlines followed the directives in letter and spirit, IndiaGo had problems with that system. The DGCA or the Ministry of Civil Aviation did not take stern measures to make the airline to follow the directives without any compromise. Factually, the word did come out that the pilots were willing to fly extra hours as well to cope with the need of the time. But the airline’s management possibly looked at the issue rather too casually -- and allowed the problem to morph into a pilots’ issue (which was not the case, and which should never have been the case). The worst part of the crisis was that it peaked right when Russian President Mr. Vladimir Putin and his large delegation was on an India visit. That the country plunges into a serious civil aviation crisis right during a rare VVIP visit, cannot be only a coincidental happenstance.

 

There is a need to ask whether there was an element of conspiratorial arrangement to let the crisis happen right at that time. It may be recalled that when United States President Mr. Donald Trump was visiting India during his first tenure five years ago, New Delhi saw a serious law-and-order crisis by way of Shaheen Baugh sit-in protests lasting for months. Was that also coincidental? Not at all. Against this background, it is time for a serious investigation in to the IndiGo crisis covering every possible angle. For, the nation would be making a serious mistake if it does not take the issue in all seriousness. Time it is to send out a message that nobody can take the Government for granted and make it bow and bend. Time it is not to spare anybody -- no matter how big and high and powerful in whatever manner.