DGCA tightens grip on IndiGo with new oversight committee; CEO Pieter Elbers 'leading from front' says airline

Tightening its grip over major aviation operator IndiGo, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has formed an eight-member oversight committee to oversee the airline's operations. The expert committee will oversee the airline's measures to overcome the nationwide chaos caused by the disruption in IndiGo's services.

In its order, the DGCA said two members from the oversight committee will be present at IndiGo's corporate office in Gurgaon daily and oversee remedial measures. According to the Directorate, the committee consists of the following officers: (i) Capt. Vikram Sharma, Dy. CFOI(A); Capt. Kapil Mangalik, SFOI(A); Capt. V.P Singh, SFOI(A); Capt. Apoorva Agarwal, SFOI(A); Capt. Swati Loomba, SFOI(A); Capt. Aman Suhag, SFOI(A); Capt. Nitya Jain, FOI(A); and Capt. N. J. Singh, FOI(A).

The DGCA said the the committee will oversee following factors of IndiGo's operations: total fleet; average stage length; total number of pilots; network details; crew utilization in hours; monthly/ daily dead heading (DH for flight duty); crew under training; split duties; all unplanned leaves per day; flights per day and available crew; total number of sectors affected on account of crew shortage; and standby crew per day and per base (cockpit and cabin). The committee will submit a report to the Union civil aviation ministry every day, at 6pm.

Meanwhile, in a recent statement, IndiGo said all its 65,000 employees are working to address the issues and "restore normalcy in operations". "The CEO and his team have been leading from the front, working through day and night to normalise flight operations and secure network stability," the airline said.