All-party delegation has not spelled out mandate: separatists

September 4, 2016

Srinagar, Sep 4: A day after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti invited them to meet the all-party delegation, the separatist leaders today said it cannot be an alternative to a transparent, agenda-based dialogue to address the "core" issue.

One "fails to understand" what hope to attach with a delegation which has not "spelled out its mandate for any engagement on a clear agenda", separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik said in a joint statement issued here.

These methods of "crisis management through Parliamentary Delegations and Track-Two... can't take the place of a genuine transparent agenda-based dialogue to address the core issue...," they said.

"That has been our consistent stand and has been spelled out recently as well in our letters to various international and global fora," they said.

The separatist leaders also lashed out at Mehbooba, alleging that she was playng the "role of obfuscation".

They said given this situation, it is "not surprising that even now her (Mehbooba's) dominant concern, as expressed in her letter, is to 'lend credence and credibility' to the Indian Parliamentary Delegation visiting Kashmir avowedly to ascertain wishes of the people".

They also referred to her "outburst" during a press conference with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh recently, and said it seemed to even "embarrass" the minister.

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IndiGo CEO says less than 1,000 cancellations on Dec 6; normalcy by Dec 15

News Network

December 5,2025

New Delhi, Dec 5: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers issued a public apology this evening after more than a thousand flights were cancelled today, making it the "most severely impacted day" in terms of cancellations. The biggest airline of the country cancelled "more than half" of its daily number of flights on Friday, said Elbers. He also said that even though the crisis will persist on Saturday, the airline anticipates fewer than 1,000 flight cancellations.

"Full normalisation is expected between December 10 and 15, though IndiGo cautions that recovery will take time due to the scale of operations," the IndiGo CEO said.

IndiGo operates around 2,300 domestic and international flights daily.

Pieter Elbers, while apologising for the major inconvenience due to delays and cancellations, said the situation is a result of various causes.

The crisis at IndiGo stems from new regulations that boost pilots' weekly rest requirements by 12 hours to 48 and allow only two night-time landings per week, down from six. IndiGo has attributed the mass cancellations to "misjudgment and planning gaps".

Elbers also listed three lines of action that the airline will adopt to address the issue.

"Firstly, customer communication and addressing your needs, for this, messages have been sent on social media. And just now, a more detailed communication with information, refunds, cancellations and other customer support measures was sent," he said.

The airline has also stepped up its call centre capacity.

"Secondly, due to yesterday's situation, we had customers stranded mostly at the nation's largest airports. Our focus was for all of them to be able to travel today itself, which will be achieved. For this, we also ask customers whose flights are cancelled not to come to the airports as notifications are sent," the CEO said.

"Thirdly, cancellations were made for today to align our crew and planes to be where they need to start tomorrow morning afresh. Earlier measures of the last few days, regrettable, have proven not to be enough, but we have decided today to reboot all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest numbers of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting from tomorrow," he added.

As airports witnessed chaotic scenes, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stepped in to grant IndiGo a temporary exemption from stricter night duty rules for pilots. It also allowed substitution of leaves with a weekly rest period.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said a high-level inquiry will be ordered and accountability will be fixed.

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