DGCA Issues Show Cause Notice to IndiGo CEO Amid Aviation Crisis, Demands Explanation Within 24 Hours
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India's aviation regulator, DGCA, has issued a show cause notice to IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers, holding him directly accountable for significant lapses in planning, oversight, and resource management. The notice, issued on Saturday, gives Elbers 24 hours to respond, warning that failure to do so will result in enforcement action. The crisis, which began on Tuesday, has seen IndiGo cancel over 3,600 flights, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded at airports. The airline has struggled to recover, with operations still severely impacted on Saturday. In a bid to protect passengers, the civil aviation ministry has imposed emergency fare caps on domestic flights, capping prices at ₹7,500 for routes up to 500km, ₹12,000 for 500-1,000km, and ₹18,000 for routes above 1,500km. IndiGo has been accused of failing to provision adequate arrangements to implement revised crew fatigue rules and of not providing requisite facilities to passengers during massive flight disruptions. The airline has described its mass cancellations as a deliberate 'reboot' strategy to improve operations. However, passengers have faced surging ticket prices, with round-trip tickets on major routes reaching ₹80,000-₹90,000. The ministry's intervention has been welcomed by passengers, who have been forced to scramble for alternative transport and in many cases, unable to locate checked baggage for days. The DGCA's notice comes after the regulator granted IndiGo sweeping exemptions from crew fatigue rules, which have been criticized by pilot associations as compromising the safety of the flying public. IndiGo shares have plummeted 7.3% over the four trading days since the crisis began, eroding market capitalisation by ₹16,190 crore. The crisis has exposed the fragility of IndiGo's business model, which relies on relentless cost optimisation with minimal operational buffers. The airline's near-exclusive reliance on Airbus A320-family aircraft has meant it lacks alternative aircraft types to deploy when operational stress mounted, unlike rivals such as Air India.
