IndiGo Proposes Crisis Management Measures to CCI Amid Anti-Trust Probe

New Delhi: Facing CCI's anti-trust probe for alleged unfair business practices, the country's largest airline IndiGo has proposed to set up a crisis management group, a dedicated grievance redressal mechanism and temporarily hand over slots to airport authorities in case of large flight disruptions as part of commitments to address the anti-competitive concerns.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI), in February, ordered a detailed probe against IndiGo for unfair business practices after the airline cancelled thousands of flights due to operational issues in December, causing hardships to passengers.

IndiGo, which has a domestic market share of more than 66 per cent, has made five broad commitments to the watchdog to address issues in case there are large-scale flight disruptions. The proposals have been submitted under the CCI's commitment regulations. As per the framework, if the commitments offered by the company are accepted by the CCI after gathering public comments, then the ongoing investigation can be terminated.

Apart from setting up a Crisis Management Group (CMG) that will comprise senior executives, the airline has proposed constituting a dedicated round-the-clock Customer Experience (CX) War Room to help impacted passengers, according to a notice issued by the CCI seeking public comments on the proposals.

Strengthening its passenger handling policy, including onboarding additional vendors at various airports to ensure adequate provision of meal boxes, water and surface transport for the passengers, is another proposal.

Also, the carrier has mentioned booking alternative flights and processing automatic refunds within a defined timeline.

For now, the CCI investigation has been halted till the completion of the public comments and assessment process.

"The establishment of a formal CMG, structured disruption review mechanisms, and handover of slots to the airport authorities will ensure that any unforeseen large scale disruptions are managed in a timely and coordinated manner and there is no unintended reduction in market capacity," IndiGo said in the notice.

One of the significant proposals pertains to the airline being willing to temporarily hand over the slots to airport authorities in case of large-scale disruptions.

"During large-scale disruptions, IndiGo will undertake measures for planning and executing network adjustment to ensure regularisation of operations post such disruptions. IndiGo shall release the associated domestic landing and departure slots to the relevant airport operators/authority for a limited period," the notice said.

IndiGo has prime slots at various airports.

In its 16-page order in February, CCI said that by cancelling thousands of flights, which constituted a significant portion of the scheduled capacity, IndiGo effectively withheld its services from the market, creating an artificial scarcity, limiting consumer access to air travel during peak demand.

"Such conduct by a dominant enterprise may be viewed as restricting the provision of services under Section 4 (2) (b)(i) of the Act," the regulator said.

Section 4 of the Competition Act pertains to abuse of dominant position.

In early December, IndiGo faced massive operational disruptions, and subsequently, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) curtailed the airline's winter schedule by 10 per cent until February 10.

Between December 3 and 5, 2,507 flights were cancelled, and 1,852 flights were delayed, impacting over 3 lakh passengers at airports across the country, the regulator said in a statement on January 20.