New Delhi: The Ministry of Civil Aviation has given a big update amid the problem of frequent flight cancellations and delays for the last several days due to technical glitches and staff shortage in Indigo Airlines. The Civil Aviation Ministry said that till now a total of refunds worth more than Rs 610 crore have been processed to the passengers. At the same time, Union Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has held an important meeting with the stakeholders, in which instructions have been given regarding refunds. Sources say that the Civil Aviation Ministry will hold another meeting with all the airline operators.
According to the ministry, amid the problems faced by passengers due to flight disruptions, IndiGo has so far returned a total amount of ₹ 610 crore to the passengers as refund. Along with this, the airline has also delivered 3,000 baggage across the country till Saturday.
In fact, last week, due to a sudden serious technical glitch in IndiGo’s booking and check-in system, hundreds of flights across the country were either canceled or delayed by hours. Thousands of passengers remained stranded at the airport, many people’s luggage also went missing. After this incident, there was anger among the passengers on social media and the Ministry had asked IndiGo to take immediate action.
Amidst the crisis, Indigo issued an update saying that operations have started on 137 out of 138 destinations on December 7. More than 1,650 flights have been operated today, while more than 1,500 flights took off on Saturday. IndiGo said that on-time performance (OTP) is expected to reach 75% which was 30% on Saturday. Also, the company claims that the entire network will be completely stable by December 10. Earlier, IndiGo CEO Peter Elbers said on Sunday that the airline will operate around 1,650 flights on Sunday. Albers said in a video message to employees that the airline’s on-time performance (OTP) is expected to be 75 percent on Sunday.
After an important meeting, the office of Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu said that the real time situation of all the airports is being continuously monitored. Ram Mohan Naidu’s office said that to reduce the inconvenience to passengers at the airports, meetings were held with several stakeholders and the real-time situation at the airports is being continuously monitored for the last four days.
He said regular meetings were held with all operators, airport directors, ground-handling agencies and all other stakeholders. Operators have been instructed to provide all necessary facilities to the stranded passengers, with special attention given to senior citizens and disabled passengers.
Giving information about the refunds, he said that IndiGo has been directed to timely inform the passengers about the cancellations and complete all refunds for canceled or highly delayed flights by 8:00 pm tonight. The aviation network is now rapidly moving towards full normalcy and corrective measures will continue until operations are completely stabilised. According to the information received, there is still a serious crisis in Indigo. 650 flights have been canceled on 7th December. Earlier, 850 flights were canceled on 6th December and 1000 flights were canceled on 5th December.