The Directorate General of Civil Aviation DGCA issued a show cause notice to IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers as the airline continued to cancel more flights on Sunday.
The regulating body has asked Elbers to explain the Spiralling delays, cancellations, and operational breakdowns within 24 hours.
The notice was also given to Isidre Porqueras, the company's accountable manager and the chief operating officer.
Pieter Elbers, who is a Dutch national, has been the CEO of IndiGo since 2022. He had had over 30 years of experience in the industry.
The CEO issued apologies over the flight cancellations and controversy.
Before joining IndiGo, he was the president and CEO of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines for eight years.
In a video message on Friday, Elbers said that it will take some time before the company can return to a full normal situation, given the size, scale and complexity of the operations. He also said they anticipate normalcy between 10 to 15 November. “Regrettably, earlier measures of the last few days have proven not to be enough. So we decided today for a reboot of all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest number of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting tomorrow onwards,” Elbers said.
Elbers started his career at KLM in 1992 as a Manager of Aircraft loading. During his tenure at KLM, he held various key executive positions in the Netherlands, Japan, Greece, and Italy.
The CEO and the Board of Directors of the Interglobe Aviation Limited (IndiGo) had a meeting on Sunday and decided to set up a Crisis Management Group (CMG) comprising the Chairman, Vikram Singh Mehta; Board Directors, Gregg Saretsky, Mike Whitaker and Amitabh Kant, and the CEO, Pieter Elbers. The press release by the company also stated that it has been "meeting regularly to monitor the situation and is being constantly updated by the management on the measures being undertaken to restore normal operations. In addition, there have been multiple telephonic discussions, including with Directors who are not members of the CMG..."
According to the notices by the DGCA, the large-scale operational failures at Indigo indicate that there were significant lapses in planning, oversight and resource management. And prima facie show the non-compliance by the airlines on the new Flight Duty Time limitation FDTL rules and the 42A of the Aircraft Rules, 1937.
The notice states, “Whereas, as the CEO, you are responsible for ensuring effective management of the airlines, but you have failed in your duty to ensure timely arrangements for the conduct of reliable operations and the availability of requisite facilities to the passengers.”
The notice also states that the company failed to provide the affected passengers with proper information and facilities that are mandatory in the case of the flight delays and cancellations, ANI reported.
