IndiGo flight cancellations: DGCA panel to summon airline CEO Pieter Elbers, COO Isidre Porqueras amid probe

AS investigations into mass flight cancellations by IndiGo continue, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)-appointed panel probing the disruptions is likely to summon the airline's CEO, Pieter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer, Isidre Porqueras.

According to a report by PTI, which cited a source, Elbers and Porqueras are set to be summoned on Wednesday by the four-member panel, which consists of Joint DG Sanjay Brahamane, Deputy Director General Amit Gupta, senior Flight Operations Inspector Kapil Manglik, and Flight Operations Inspector Lokesh Rampal.

The mandate of the panel, which has been tasked with identifying the root cause of the pan-India disruptions that left thousands of passengers stranded, includes assessing IndiGo's manpower planning, rostering systems and the airline's willingness to implement the latest norms on pilots' duty times and rest periods.

PTI further reported that the panel, which was constituted by the DGCA on 5 December, will review IndiGo's level of compliance with the latest Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms, including the analysis of gaps admitted by the budget carrier in a bid to ascertain accountability for the failures that led to nationwide disruptions in flight services.

The panel has been instructed by the DGCA to submit its report within 15 days.

FDTL norms

The latest FDTL norms, which require extended weekly rest periods for pilots and limitations on night duties, among other things, came into force on 1 November this year for all domestic airlines, despite opposition from IndiGo and Tata-owned Air India.

Despite opposition from some carriers, the DGCA rolled out the norms this year in a phased manner following a Directive by the Delhi High Court. The norms were initially supposed to have been imposed in March 2024, but airlines, including IndiGo, had sought a phased, step-by-step implementation, citing additional crew requirements.

Show-cause notice to IndiGo

In addition to summoning CEO Elbers and COO Porqueras, aviation watchdog DGCA has already issued a show-cause notice to IndiGo over the ongoing disruptions.

On Sunday, the DGCA gave IndiGo a one-time, 24-hour extension to reply to the show-cause notice, the deadline for which expired at 6 pm on Monday, 8 December.

Airline sources on Monday told news agency PTI that both CEO Elbers and COO Porqueras had filed their replies to DGCA by the extended deadline.

What's the status of IndiGo flights now?

IndiGo has stated that services will return to normal by 10 February 2026.

On Monday, 8 December, the airline stated that it was working to restore 100% operational integrity, a day after it announced that flights to 137 of 138 destinations had resumed operations.

IndiGo announced on Monday that refunds for flights cancelled between 3 and 15 December were already being processed.

“In case your plans have changed due to the disruption, we are also offering a full waiver on change and cancellation requests for all bookings valid for travel till 15th December 2025. You can do so by visiting https://bit.ly/4iGWxU9 and following the simple steps. Refunds will be credited to the original payment method and may appear as one or two transactions,” the airline said.