Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said that the ongoing flight disruptions across the country are mainly due to issues faced by IndiGo Airlines and not because of any problem linked with the government or the aviation ministry. The Minister made the remarks on Friday while speaking to reporters in New Delhi, as passengers in several airports continued to deal with delays and cancellations over the last few days.
The Minister said that more than 1,000 IndiGo flights have been cancelled in recent days, but other airlines have managed to operate their flights without major trouble. He pointed out that new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) rules were introduced in November and all airlines are working under the same rules. According to him, if the new rules were causing problems, then other airlines would have also faced similar difficulties.
“Whatever issue we are talking about is related to IndiGo Airlines. So the fault is at IndiGo, not at the ministry or some other level,” Naidu said. He added that the government has been in touch with airlines ever since the new duty time rules were implemented and that the aviation regulator DGCA is also keeping a close watch on the situation. 
The Minister informed that passengers are expected to get some relief beginning Saturday as the backlog of stranded travellers is slowly being cleared at major airports. IndiGo is also likely to restart limited operations from tomorrow and may gradually increase its services over the coming days. He said that complete normal service may take a couple of days to return as the situation settles.
On the question of preventing such disruptions, Naidu stated that authorities have been continuously coordinating with airlines. He also pointed out that recent safety updates ordered by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency for Airbus A320 aircraft were completed on more than 300 IndiGo planes in a short period without any disruption, which shows that the sector has the capacity to deal with technical requirements.
Meanwhile, the government has decided to set up a committee to look into the large-scale cancellations by IndiGo and determine responsibility. Naidu underlined that strict action will follow after the inquiry. “There will be action on them, because this is not something which we want to entertain,” he said. He added that the ministry’s main concern is the convenience of passengers and that such situations should not be repeated in the future.
