IndiGo CEO gets show cause notice

The civil aviation ministry separately imposed emergency fare caps on domestic flights and ordered IndiGo to complete all refunds by Sunday evening, as tens of thousands of stranded passengers across Indian airports confronted surging ticket prices, missing luggage and mounting anger in the fifth day of the operational meltdown.

The show cause notice from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, issued Saturday evening, cited IndiGo for “prima facie non-compliance” with Aircraft Rules and Civil Aviation Requirements, accusing the airline of failing to provision adequate arrangements to implement revised crew fatigue rules and failing to provide requisite facilities to passengers during massive flight disruptions.

“…Such large-scale operational failures indicate significant lapses in planning, oversight, and resource management, and is prima facie non-compliance on the part of the airline,” the notice, addressed to the CEO, stated. “As CEO, you are responsible for effective management of the airline but you have failed in your duty to ensure timely arrangements for conduct of reliable operations and the availability of requisite facilities to the passengers”.