Karnataka: Indigo disruption forces newlyweds to attend reception online
Hubballi (Karnataka) (PTI): The venue was all decked up and a delicious spread ready for the invitees. But Megha Ksheerasagar and Sangam Das could not be present for their own wedding reception, thanks to the national flight disruptions that has sent many passengers across the country into a tizzy.
The newlyweds' reception was fixed here on December 3, but the couple was forced to attend their grand event only via video conference due to the disruptions in top carrier Indigo's operations, mainly due to crew woes.
Not meaning to miss the important day, the couple appeared on a large screen at the venue through video conferencing from Bhubaneswar, greeted the guests and apologised for not being personally present.
Instead, the bride's parents graced the occasion at the scheduled reception venue--Gujarat Bhavan, here, on behalf of the couple that had tied the knot on November 23 in Odisha's Bhubaneswar.
According to the family, the couple, both software engineers, work in Bengaluru. The reception was arranged at the bride's native place in Hubballi on Wednesday.
ALSO READ: Regulator DGCA eases flight duty norms for pilots amid IndiGo crisis
To be part of their special day, the couple had booked tickets on the Bhubaneswar-Bengaluru-Hubballi route for December 2. Some relatives had booked tickets on the Bhubaneswar-Mumbai-Hubballi route. However, due to operational disruptions, IndiGo flights were continuously delayed from 9 am on December 2 until early morning on December 3, and were eventually cancelled.
"My daughter's wedding happened on November 23 and we had organised a reception at our native place in Hubballi for people here. The flight kept getting delayed and at the last moment, at around 4 am, it got cancelled. Now what could we do after that. We had to come up with some solution. Then I decided to do the reception online. I immediately arranged for a screen and asked my daughter and son-in-law to join the reception online," the bride's father Anil Kumar Ksheerasagar told PTI Videos.
He urged the central government to take corrective measures so that public, being the tax payers, don't suffer.
"What the problem with IndiGo is, we don't know. My daughter and son-in-law were supposed to come via an IndiGo flight but that got cancelled. IndiGo alone can't be blamed. The government must understand that it is in case of emergencies that people prefer flights. Some measures need to be taken to resolve this issue. When the PM's flight gets cancelled, he is taken by helicopter. Why is the same not done for us, the common people. We also have emergencies, don't we. The government must think of this, and if they ignore public woes, they should remember that we are also VIPs because we pay tax."
Relatives had come for the reception from across the country--Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bagalkote, Davangere and Belagavi.
"I didn't know what to do as relatives and guests had come from so many places. I was stressed, but then I quickly decided to do it online," Ksheerasagar said.
As the couple could not travel to Hubballi, the bride's parents sat in place of the newly-weds at the reception venue and conducted the rituals, while the bride and groom, dressed up in Bhubaneswar, attended their grand reception online.
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IndiGo cancels over 200 flights from Delhi, Mumbai on Saturday
Mumbai (PTI): Domestic carrier IndiGo has cancelled over 200 flights from Delhi and Mumbai on Saturday, a day after managing to temporarily secure major relaxations in the second phase of the court-mandated new flight duty and rest period norms for cockpit crew, sources said.
Of these cancelled flights, 109 IndiGo flights were cancelled at Mumbai airport, 51 arrivals and 58 departures, and 106 flights at Delhi airport, which included 54 departures and 52 arrivals, they said.
On Friday, when IndiGo cancelled over 1,000 flights from across airports, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers, after maintaining a stoic silence over the grave crisis for three days, apologised in a video message for the major inconvenience caused to passengers due to the disruptions.
ALSO READ: Indigo fiasco: B'luru airport suffers disruptions; over 102 services cancelled, KIAL issues advisory
In the one-way video communication, Elbers also said that the airline was expecting fewer than 1,000 flights on Saturday.
It may be mentioned here that on Friday, DGCA provided temporary relief to IndiGo, which is partially owned by Rahul Bhatia, by way of rolling back the night duty definition to 12 am-5 am from 12 am-6 am earlier, and allowing its pilots to do six night-landings from two earlier, besides other relaxations.
Meanwhile, the pilots' body, Airlines' Pilots Association (ALPA) India, has taken a "strong" objection to the DGCA's "selective and unsafe" relief to IndiGo, saying that the relaxations have not just "destroyed regulatory parity but also placed millions of passengers at "heightened risk".
Following the meeting convened by the Ministry of Civil Aviation with ALPA India and other pilot associations on December 5, the Ministry announced that it has decided to place the implementation of the revised FDTL CAR in abeyance.
"ALPA India expresses its deep concern that this step directly contradicts the Court's directions, which mandate the enforcement of fatigue-mitigation standards rooted in aviation science," the Association said in a statement late Friday.
It stated that keeping the FDTL in abeyance not only undermines judicial authority but also heightens the risk to pilots and passengers by delaying essential fatigue protections.
"We urge the (Civil Aviation) Ministry and the regulator to uphold the Court's order in both letter and spirit and to prioritise the safety of the pilots and travelling public above all commercial considerations," ALPA India said.
ALSO READ: IndiGo cancels over 1,000 flights on Friday; expects situation to normalise by Dec 10-15: CEO
It is worth noting that IndiGo was the first carrier to oppose the new FDTL norms for pilots when they were introduced in January 2024, with a March implementation timeline.
It had been argued that the airlines require more time to put in place due to additional crew requirements. The latest FDTL norms, which entail increased weekly rest periods to 48 hours, extended night hours, and limiting the number of night landings to only two, as against six earlier, were initially also opposed by domestic airlines, including IndiGo and Tata Group-owned Air India.
But they were subsequently rolled out by the DGCA following the Delhi High Court's directives, albeit with a delay of over one year, in a phased manner, and with certain variations for airlines like IndiGo and Air India.
While the first phase of these FDTL norms came into force in July, the second phase, which reduced the number of night landings from six to two earlier, was implemented from November 1.
The norms were originally to be put in place in March 2024.
