Aircraft grounding: IndiGo to shift affected passengers to other flights

The airline did not say how many of its flights have been cancelled or how many aircraft are on the ground

Budget airline IndiGo, which has cancelled over 480 flights this month following the grounding of its 11 A320Neo jets due to faulty engines earlier this month, on Friday said it is working to accommodate the affected passengers on alternate flights.

"We understand the difficulty our passengers faced in the past few days due to the cancellations of some of our flights, pursuant to our compliance with the DGCA directive concerning a few of our aircraft," IndiGo said in a statement.

The airline, however, did not say how many of its flights have been cancelled or how many aircraft are on the ground due to the regulator's directive.

"To ensure the passengers suffer no inconvenience as a result of the cancellation of these flights, we have been working to accommodate all affected customers on alternate flights," the statement added.

Citing safety of aircraft operations, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had on March 12 ordered IndiGo and GoAir to ground 11 A320 Neos fitted with PW 1100 engines with immediate effect. Of these, eight are owned by IndiGo and remaining by GoAir.

Subsequently, the airlines cancelled a good number of flights for the next three days. But on March 15, both the carriers posted a curtailed flight schedule on their respective websites, announcing the decision not to operate as many as over 600 flights between March 15 and March 31. Of this IndiGo alone has cancelled 488 flights.

IndiGo also claimed around 96-98 per cent of its flights are operating as "usual, adding "we are also actively engaged with our engine and aircraft manufacturers to find a long-term solution at the earliest.