Sanjay Gupta. It’s hard to imagine the extent to which IndiGo, the country’s largest airline, has caused Indian passengers more distress over the past week. IndiGo passengers suffered because it hadn’t prepared to comply with the new regulations of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the governing body for civil aviation, for safe air travel.

These regulations were developed based on international standards, and all airlines were given sufficient time to implement them. The purpose of these regulations was to ensure that pilots do not exceed a certain amount of duty hours. Safe air travel requires pilots to avoid fatigue due to long periods of duty.

While Air India, SpiceJet, and Akasa Airlines made adequate arrangements to comply with pilot fatigue regulations, IndiGo failed to do so, even after the deadline for implementing the new regulations had been extended. This suggests that IndiGo was simply unprepared for the new regulations.

The DGCA should have monitored whether all airlines, including IndiGo, were making appropriate arrangements to comply with the new regulations. It should have paid closer attention to IndiGo, as it is the largest domestic airline with a market share of over 60 percent.

While the DGCA failed to fulfill its responsibility, IndiGo also failed to inform it that it was unable to comply with the new regulations or to request more time to recruit pilots and other staff. Because the DGCA failed to act promptly, IndiGo’s flights were either cancelled or delayed when the new regulations came into effect on December 1st.

As the number of cancelled and delayed flights began to reach the hundreds, the number of distressed passengers also increased. The cancellation of a large number of IndiGo flights also led to higher airfares. Thousands of passengers not only failed to reach their destinations on time but also had to pay additional fares. The loss of time and money due to the DGCA and IndiGo’s negligence should not only be assessed, but compensation should also be paid.

Someone should approach the court for this. It’s pointless to simply apologize and consider IndiGo’s duty done. Unless it’s forced to compensate passengers for the time and money lost, its attitude will be unlikely to improve.

IndiGo should be held liable for some level of punishment because it deliberately created circumstances that inconvenienced passengers and forced the DGCA to reverse its decision to implement new regulations that were essential for passenger safety. The DGCA should realize that its competence and credibility as a regulatory body have been seriously questioned.

The Indian aviation market is currently the third largest in the world. Air travelers rely heavily on IndiGo and Air India. It’s clear that IndiGo employed a strategy to pressure the DGCA and deliberately canceled more flights than necessary. This must have been due to its preoccupation with profits. Of course, every company has the right to be concerned about profits, but that doesn’t mean it should exploit its monopoly position in the market and ignore regulatory regulations that are essential for public safety.

IndiGo could have easily recruited the necessary pilots and crew to comply with the DGCA’s new regulations, but it appears to have assumed that the DGCA would not be able to pressure it beyond a certain limit. Whatever the truth, the mere fact that the government has ordered an investigation into the matter is not enough, as the DGCA has had to postpone implementation of the new regulations for two months. This will send a message to the country and the world that India is not vigilant about safe aircraft operations.

In the case of IndiGo, it cannot be ignored that it has previously been known for its lack of concern for passenger comfort. IndiGo travelers often complain that its crew is rude and does not offer the same level of flexibility as other airlines. Despite these complaints, passengers still prefer IndiGo because of its punctuality.

This led to IndiGo’s growing share of the aviation market, but this increased share has now become a problem. Regardless of what the DGCA claims, by suspending its flights instead of enforcing the new regulations, IndiGo not only inconvenienced the public but also forced it to capitulate. It’s not a good situation for a company to leverage its strong market share to act arbitrarily and even make the regulatory body unable to enforce its crucial decision.

Even though the Civil Aviation Minister claims that the decision to postpone new aircraft operating regulations has been made without compromising safety, the fact remains that pilots will have to operate aircraft with less comfort. The government must learn from the crisis caused by IndiGo’s behavior and ensure that airlines purchasing new aircraft are allowed to operate only if they demonstrate their ability to comply with the necessary regulations.