55% IndiGo domestic flights delayed on July 02 as crew call sick on AI recruitment day; DGCA to probe

Fifty-five per cent of IndiGo’s domestic flights were delayed on July 2 as a significant number of cabin crew members took sick leave, with sources in the industry saying they ostensibly went for an Air India recruitment drive. When asked about this, Arun Kumar, who heads the aviation regulator DGCA, told PTI yesterday, “We are looking into this.” The phase-2 of Air India’s recruitment drive was conducted on July 2 and a majority of IndiGo’s cabin crew members who took sick leave went for it, the sources in the industry added.

IndiGo, India’s largest airline, currently operates approximately 1,600 flights –domestic and international — daily.IndiGo and Air India did not respond to PTI’s requests for statements on the matter. According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s website, 45.2 per cent of IndiGo’s domestic flights operated on time on July 2. In comparison, the on-time performances of Air India, SpiceJet, Vistara, Go First and AirAsia India was 77.1 per cent, 80.4 per cent, 86.3 per cent, 88 per cent and 92.3 per cent, respectively, on Saturday.

Air India is “clearly reorganising” itself under the “able stewardship” of the Tata Group and wants to invest in new planes to regain international passenger market share, Christian Scherer, Chief Commercial Officer of aircraft manufacturer Airbus, had said on June 19 in Doha. (Source FE)