New Delhi: The main reason for the recent chaos in the country's aviation sector due to IndiGo is not a shortage of pilots, but rather a malfunction in IndiGo's own automatic rostering system.
Sources said that several incidents occurred in November. The biggest problem stemmed from an incident involving a JetBlue Airways Airbus A320 flight in the US on October 30th. Following this, all Airbus A320 family aircraft worldwide were instructed to undergo a software upgrade.
Plane and Pilot Rosters Disrupted
The software update was scheduled from November 29th to 5:29 AM on November 30th. IndiGo had to upgrade the software on 200 aircraft. Under pressure, IndiGo operated all its planes through one of its six maintenance centers in India. This disrupted its plane and pilot rosters. IndiGo's system could not handle it.
Situation Unmanageable
Sources said that IndiGo then tried to manage its roster both manually and automatically. However, the situation remained unmanageable, and from December 2nd onwards, things went from bad to worse.
In early December, several IndiGo flights began to be canceled one after another, causing considerable hardship to passengers. The IndiGo crisis was raised in both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, and a discussion was demanded. The matter is also being heard in the Delhi High Court. However, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. The apex court directed the petitioner to approach the Delhi High Court.
