Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing NDA MPs on Tuesday amid the escalating IndiGo aviation crisis, underlined that government regulations must make life easier for citizens, not burden them. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju briefed reporters about the interaction, quoting the Prime Minister as saying that any rule framed by the government “should strengthen the system without creating needless trouble for ordinary people.”
The meeting of NDA parliamentarians took place just hours before a crucial Lok Sabha debate on electoral reforms, even as India’s largest airline continued to reel under severe operational failures for the eighth consecutive day.
IndiGo’s disruptions have intensified nationwide, with more than 270 fresh flight cancellations reported on Tuesday alone. Airport officials confirmed that Bengaluru remained the worst affected, recording 121 cancellations, followed by Hyderabad with 58, Chennai with 41, and Mumbai with 31.
The cascading cancellations have forced the Union government to prepare for significant corrective action. Civil Aviation Minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu reiterated that the winter flight schedule of IndiGo would be trimmed and redistributed to other carriers to safeguard passenger convenience.
“IndiGo operates around 2,200 flights daily. We will definitely reduce their routes and redistribute capacity,” the minister stated, adding that authorities have already processed ₹745 crore in refunds for over 7.3 lakh cancelled PNRs between December 1 and 8.
Naidu maintained that the chaos stemmed from IndiGo’s internal lapses, highlighting failures in crew management and rostering systems. “This situation arose because of crew scheduling and planning issues within the airline. We’ve strictly ensured there is no violation of FDTL norms and have been monitoring the situation closely for a month,” he told Parliament earlier.
