In the wake of the week-long disruptions and chaos in airline operations, union Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu on Tuesday ordered 10 per cent curtailment of IndiGo airline's winter schedule flights.

"The Ministry considers it necessary to curtail the overall Indigo routes, which will help in stabilising the airline’s operations and lead to reduced cancellations. A curtailment of 10% has been ordered," the minister wrote, taking tothe social media platform X.

This is being done as punishment for the airline not having worked out its crew hiring plans to meet the DGCA's rostering and off-hour notification, sources said.

The matter has been examined in the Ministry, and in view of the recent abnormal cancellations of IndiGo flights resulting in substantial disruption to air traffic across the country, it has been observed that the airline has not been able to adequately manage its operational resources, including aircraft and pilot crew.

Accordingly, the approved winter Schedule of the airline will be reviewed and curtailed by a minimum of 10 per cent.

Officials say that the existing show-cause notice may be suitably modified, and a fresh notice issued to the airline, depending on the periodic review of the situation for further necessary action.

The airline has also been instructed to comply with all the directives of the Ministry, including fare capping and passenger convenience measures without any exception.

On Tuesday, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers was summoned to the Ministry to provide an update, and he has confirmed that 100 per cent of the refunds for flights affected till December 6 have been completed.

The airline has been given strict instructions to expedite the completion of the remaining refunds and the process of baggage handover process.

Although the number of cancellations reported by Indigo has reduced compared to earlier, passengers continued to face issues in various cities around the country.

The Chennai airport took to the social media platform X in the morning, informing that departures of 18 flights and arrivals of 23 flights have been cancelled by IndiGo up to 8 am.

According to sources, there were multiple cancellations at the Bengaluru and Hyderabad airports as well.

As per reports, Bengaluru airport reported the highest cancellations of 121 flights on Tuesday, followed by 58 in Hyderabad and 41 in Chennai.

Similarly, at Ahmedabad airport, with regard to the disruptions, a total of 30 cancellations - 17 arrivals and 13 departures - were reported up to 4 pm.

Meanwhile, amid the gradual improvement in network operations by IndiGo ever since the government’s announcement to keep the pilot flying hours rules in abeyance, Peter Elbers, in a video message addressed to the travellers and general public, has assured that the airline is working on a “war-footing” to restore full operations.

He said the operations by the airline have been on a steady rise since December 5, when the airline was only operating 500 scheduled flights.

This has risen to 1,500 on December 6, 1,650 on December 7, and 1,800 on December 8.

On Tuesday, the airline is operating more than 1,800 schedules, and at all the destinations on the network with normalised on-time performance.

As of Tuesday, Elbers said that all scheduled operations reflected on the airline’s website are operating normally without any disruptions.

Acknowledging that air travel is associated with people’s “ambition, emotions and aspirations,” Elbers apologised for the unprecedented disruptions, and said the company's priority has been to support the stranded passengers first to help them reach their destinations safely, and then refund the money against all cancellations and deliver all bags stuck at the airports to the passengers concerned.

He said that lakhs of customers have already received their refunds, and tbulk of the bags have been delivered.

As an airline, Elbers said that the effort is to “emerge stronger” from the events that unfolded in the last week. Once the immediate challenges are dealt with, he said that the airline will dive deeper into the reasons behind the crisis.

Elbers said that while the “customer angst” about what had happened is understandable, customer confidence has started returning and bookings have started as operations normalise.