Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: IndiGo Chairman Vikram Singh Mehta on December 11 said that the airline’s Board will bring in external technical experts to work with the management and identify the root causes behind last week’s massive flight disruptions. In a detailed statement, Mehta said the experts will help ensure that such large-scale operational failures never happen again.
Mehta began his message by apologising to passengers affected by the disruptions that occurred between December 3 and 5. He said thousands of travellers were stranded, with many missing important personal events, business meetings, medical appointments and international connections. Baggage delays further added to the chaos. “We are truly, truly sorry,” he said, acknowledging that the airline failed to meet customer expectations.
Mehta explained that the Board had initially chosen not to make an early statement because it wanted the management, led by CEO Pieter Elbers, to focus on restoring operations. “IndiGo is now operating more than 1,900 flights a day, connecting all 138 destinations, with on-time performance back to ormal levels,” he stated.
Mehta said the airline has faced both fair and unfair criticism. He admitted that the fair criticism was that the airline let passengers down. He assured that IndiGo will carefully examine what went wrong and will provide answers to customers, the government, shareholders and employees. “As part of this process, the Board has decided to involve independent technical experts to support the investigation and corrective actions,” Mehta added.
