India’s regulator withdraws pilot rest policy after IndiGo chaos

India’s aviation watchdog has rolled back its new policy of weekly rest for pilots, reports said on Friday (Dec 5), after chaos caused by hundreds of flight cancellations by the country’s biggest airline, IndiGo.

Airports across India have been in disarray since Monday, with the private carrier blaming the disruption on “unforeseen operational challenges”.

On Thursday, IndiGo admitted to aviation regulators that “misjudgement and planning gaps” in adapting to new rules led to the operational meltdown, even though it had two years to prepare for the switch.

The new rules came into effect last month with the aim of giving pilots more rest periods to enhance passenger safety.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Friday said it was withdrawing the new “weekly rest” policy immediately, the English-language Hindustan Times and other media reported.

IndiGo, which cancelled all domestic flights Friday from New Delhi and Chennai, apologised for “the immense inconvenience and distress” caused to travellers.

The airline, which commands 60 per cent of India’s domestic market, operates over 2,000 flights a day.

Passengers vented their anger online on Friday, including Singapore’s ambassador to India, Simon Wong, who said he was “lost for words”.

“I joined the tens of thousands of passengers stranded by #Indigo... My sincere apologies to my young staff waiting for me to attend his #shaadi (wedding). Lost for words,” a post on the embassy’s official X handle said.

A passenger at Delhi airport told broadcaster NDTV that he had no update from the airline for the last 12 hours.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s main opponent, Rahul Gandhi from the Congress party, blamed the fiasco on the government’s “monopoly model”.

“Once again, it’s ordinary Indians who pay the price – in delays, cancellations and helplessness. India deserves fair competition in every sector, not match-fixing monopolies,” he said in a post on X.

The crisis is one of the biggest challenges faced by the no-frills airline, which has built its reputation on punctuality.

Last week, 200 IndiGo planes were affected when Airbus issued an alert for an urgent upgrade for 6,000 aircraft worldwide.

India is one of the world’s fastest growing aviation markets, hitting 500,000 daily flyers last month for the first time. AFP

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