IndiGo flies without CAT-IIIB crew to Delhi, diverts flights

In an alleged violation of the DGCA directives on operations during the low-visibility period, no-frills airline IndiGo operated today three flights to Delhi without CAT-IIIB compliant crew and later on diverted these to Jaipur.
The flights had originated from Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Pune and were all bound for Indira Gandhi International Airport here, which is the only CAT-111B compliant airport in the country, airport sources said.
An IndiGo spokesperson on being contacted said that the airline deployed the non-CAT-IIIB trained crew as there was no prediction of a "bad weather" at the Delhi airport.
"Three IndiGo flights from Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Pune for Delhi were diverted to Jaipur airport as the all three aircraft did not have CAT-IIIB compliant crew," airport sources said here.

Aviation regulator DGCA had in December ordered all the airlines to deploy CAT-III complaint planes and crew trained to fly under low visibility conditions while operating in and out of IGI airport in the morning to ensure smooth flow of air traffic during fog season.
According to sources, all the three diverted flights departed for their destination after an hour of their landing at the Jaipur airport.

In terms of on-time performance from four metro airports, 74.1 per cent of IndiGo flights from Mumbai airport and 75.7 per cent from Delhi airport were on time in December, according to DGCA data.

Also, as many as 58,449 IndiGo passengers were affected because of the flight delays, more than two hours, in December last year and were just served refreshments.
As against this, other airlines passengers, including the budget and regional ones, were provided with refunds, rescheduled journeys and monetary compensations due to the delays which were beyond two hours, the data said.