Air safety officials axed after Indian flight chaos

India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has dismissed four officials overseeing IndiGo operations amid ongoing flight disruptions and cancellations across the country. .

Four Flight Operations Inspectors (FOIs) responsible for supervising operations at IndiGo, India's largest airline, are victims of the ongoing chaos, the India News Network reported.

“Contracts of these FOIs with the DGCA have been terminated in relation to the recent IndiGo crisis,” an DGCA spokesperson said.

The decision came in the wake of significant operational challenges that have led to widespread flight cancellations and delays over the past week.

The FOIs, who are senior pilots assigned to monitor the airline’s compliance with regulatory requirements, were tasked with ensuring IndiGo had the necessary crew resources for safe operations.

But the DGCA has returned them to their previous airline roles before the completion of their terms.

Local media reports indicate that the airline failed to adequately prepare for new flight duty time limitations (FDTL) set to take effect in July and November 2025.

These new regulations required IndiGo to hire additional pilots to comply with increased crew requirements.

Officials familiar with the matter said, the FOIs did not adequately address this critical issue, contributing to a pilot shortfall that hindered the airline's ability to operate effectively under the new rules.

As a result, the DGCA temporarily suspended the implementation of the new FDTL for Airbus A320 aircraft until February 2026 to prevent further operational disruptions.

So business first. Safety second?

IndiGo is working to stabilise its operations, with over 2,050 flights scheduled across 138 destinations on a single day.

IndiGo is one of the largest airlines in Asia with 64.2% domestic market share as of August. 

Airlines can't stay on schedule; but blame air traffic controllers

Remember how airlines promised improved on-time performances post-Covid.

It isn't happening. But the airlines are blaming air traffic controllers.

On-time air travel performance in Europe last year was one of the worst for many years, the Travel Mole portal reports.

There was a notable increase in delays and costs impacting airlines with millions of passengers disrupted.

The recently-released Performance Review Report (PRR) from Eurocontrol, shows over 25% of flights did not arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled time.

En-route Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) delays in 2023 were the second highest over the past 20 years and exceeded the figure for 2019, even though that year had a higher level of air traffic.

Total ATFM delays in 2023 reached 18.1 million minutes, which is the equivalent of 301,000 hours.

The report suggests inadequate levels of recruitment of air traffic controllers will add to the pressure on Europe’s airspace.

Airlines for Europe (A4E) is calling for a rethink of how Europe’s airspace is managed in order to meet the targets for performance.

Ourania Georgoutsakou, MD of A4E said: “Airspace is a critical infrastructure for Europe and the latest performance review shows that it is creaking at the seams.

"Over one in four flights delayed is simply unacceptable for airlines and their passengers.”

Image: Alvin Niwan, Scop.io