Bengaluru: IndiGo airlines cancelled around 75 several flights over the weekend and at least 32 on Monday. The airline said the reason is network disruption due to the bad weather.
The airline released a statement and said, "Due to a severe hailstorm in North India on Friday, February 7, 2019, 11 IndiGo flights were diverted. Consequently, this disrupted operations across our network the following day. As part of recovering our schedule, positioning of the crew and aircraft had to be readjusted. As a result, a number of flights were cancelled. We regret the inconvenience caused to our customers."
However, the story is deeper than just bad weather. Sources said that the weather was just a basic reason but the actual reason is a shortage of pilots in the airline. IndiGo, which is expanding rapidly, has not been able to manage the required number of pilots to operate the flights. The airline is in desperate need of captains.
A source said that six months ago IndiGo was operating flights with just 70% pilots and had a 30% shortage. As per estimation, IndiGo at least needs 100 captains immediately to sort out the work and flight schedule.
With a fleet of over 200 aircrafts, the airline operates more than 1,300 daily flights with around 3,000 pilots. Bad weather occurs every year but why is the airline on a spree of flight cancellations this time around? February is not often known for peak weather changes. It is mostly during pre and post monsoon.
11/02/19 Nagarjun Dwarakanath/India Today
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The airline released a statement and said, "Due to a severe hailstorm in North India on Friday, February 7, 2019, 11 IndiGo flights were diverted. Consequently, this disrupted operations across our network the following day. As part of recovering our schedule, positioning of the crew and aircraft had to be readjusted. As a result, a number of flights were cancelled. We regret the inconvenience caused to our customers."
However, the story is deeper than just bad weather. Sources said that the weather was just a basic reason but the actual reason is a shortage of pilots in the airline. IndiGo, which is expanding rapidly, has not been able to manage the required number of pilots to operate the flights. The airline is in desperate need of captains.
A source said that six months ago IndiGo was operating flights with just 70% pilots and had a 30% shortage. As per estimation, IndiGo at least needs 100 captains immediately to sort out the work and flight schedule.
With a fleet of over 200 aircrafts, the airline operates more than 1,300 daily flights with around 3,000 pilots. Bad weather occurs every year but why is the airline on a spree of flight cancellations this time around? February is not often known for peak weather changes. It is mostly during pre and post monsoon.
11/02/19 Nagarjun Dwarakanath/India Today
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