The regulator and the government are likely to decide on action against the airline and its management based on the report. Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu had assured stringent action basis the report against those found responsible for the IndiGo meltdown. Naidu had blamed lapses on IndiGo’s part for the disruption and that the government action in this case will “set an example”, indicating that even the top management personnel of IndiGo may have their jobs on the line, apart from facing heavy financial penalties and other action.

The minister, while stating that lapses on the part of the regulator will also be studied, had said that the DGCA gave more than enough time to airlines to implement the new rules and barring IndiGo, all other carriers had smooth operations. Following the crisis, the DGCA sacked four of its flight operations inspectors (FOIs) who were responsible for oversight on IndiGo and the airline’s preparation for the new pilot rest and duty duration rules. The DGCA had also issued show cause notices to IndiGo’s Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer Isidre Porqueras in view of the airline’s meltdown.

Apart from evident lapses on IndiGo’s part, questions had been raised from various quarters on the quality of the DGCA’s oversight on airline operations and why even the regulator and the government could not see that a crisis was imminent.

The network-wide disruption faced by IndiGo—India’s largest airline with a domestic market share of almost 65 per cent—was primarily due to the carrier’s inadequate preparation for the second phase of the new crew rest and duty norms that took effect on November 1. IndiGo was short on crew against what the new norms required, and in combination with a few other factors, this led to widespread disruption in the airline’s operations, leading to scores of flight cancellations on a daily basis for a few days starting December 3, crippling flight operations across the country.

The new Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules stipulate more rest for pilots and rationalization of their flying duties—particularly late night operations—in a bid to better manage pilot fatigue, which is a key risk to aviation safety. These new norms, which were stipulated in January last year were delayed in their implementation, and took effect in two phase—from July 1 and November 1—with the second phase rollout hitting IndiGo considerably. The new norms meant that airlines either had to have more pilots to maintain their schedule, or shrink the schedule in line with the new requirements. IndiGo, however, was caught unprepared.

In review meetings, IndiGo also accepted that that the disruptions arose “primarily from misjudgement and planning gaps in implementing” the second phase of new FDTL rules, with the airline saying that the actual crew requirement for the new rules exceeded what it had anticipated, as per the DGCA. Given the scale of the disruption, the DGCA granted IndiGo a temporary one-time exemption from some night operations-related changes in the new FDTL norms for its Airbus A320 pilots. The temporary rollback, which will be in place till February 10, helped IndiGo to get its act together and stabilise operations.

The DGCA also granted a few other temporary relaxations to IndiGo in a bid to ensure that flight operations remain stable, while ordering the airline to curtail it’s domestic flight schedule by 10 per cent. The airline has been operating around 2,200 daily flights for the past few days, only slightly lower than its usual 2,300-plus daily flights.