New Delhi, Dec 11 (IANS) Returning slowly to normalcy, after days of disruption, IndiGo said it aims to operate more than 1,950 flights on Thursday.

The airline last week faced a significant crisis, causing thousands of cancellations and delays, severely congesting major airports nationwide, and keeping passengers in long queues.

In a statement, an IndiGo spokesperson shared that all destinations in the airline’s network have been fully connected since December 8, and operations have stabilised since December 9.

“IndiGo continues to strengthen its operations, improving its services day by day to now operating 1,900+ flights that seamlessly connect all 138 destinations across our network,” the spokesperson said.

“Expected to operate 1,950+ flights today with approximately 300,000 customers,” the spokesperson added.

The airline spokesperson said it has demonstrated incremental improvement and its flight schedule has been largely “reliable” for the last 3 days with same-day cancellations only “due to weather, technical, other external or uncontrollable factors”.

On December 8, it flew more than 1,750 flights with just one same-day cancellation, and on December 9, it had over 1,800 flights and zero cancellations. Over 1,900 flights took off on December 10, while just two were cancelled on the same day.

“Our commitment to operational excellence has led to significant efficiency gains, and our on-time performance has been restored to top-tier industry standards,” the spokesperson said.

“As the IndiGo team works hand-in-hand with authorities to further normalise our operations, we remain focused on safety, efficiency, and support to every customer,” the spokesperson added.

Earlier, IndiGo Chairman Vikram Singh Mehta said that the airline’s Board will bring in external technical experts to work with the management and identify the root causes behind last week’s massive flight disruptions.

In a detailed statement, Mehta said the experts will help ensure that such large-scale operational failures never happen again.

He also apologised to passengers affected by the disruptions that occurred between December 3 and 5.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday constituted an eight-member special team to keep a close watch on IndiGo’s operations as the airline battles sustained disruptions across its network.

As per reports, two officials from the team would be stationed at IndiGo’s corporate headquarters and look into daily processes to identify gaps that are affecting flight operations.

–IANS

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