IndiGo crisis: Pilots allege chaos were engineered to bring new FDTL regime to its knees

KOLKATA: Pilots in IndiGo Airlines have questioned how the shortage of 65 captains and 59 co-pilots following the implementation of the revised flight duty time limitation (FDTL) norms could have triggered the cancellation and delays of thousands of flights and alleged that the crisis was engineered to bring the country to its knees and force the govt to put the FDTL norms in abeyance. "IndiGo operates around 2,200 flights a day. It has 2,357 captains on its rolls and 2,194 first officers. Hence, there are 4,551 pilots while the deficit is 124 pilots or 5%. When the new norms came into effect, it should have affected 5-7% of the flights, i.e., 110-150 flights at most. Then why were several hundred flights delayed and cancelled each day?" a veteran pilot pondered. Others also ques