Less pay, they claim, is now the least of their issues; they are disillusioned with their airline and no longer feel it deserves their loyalty. In its own best interest, it is time the management took this bull by its horns. It would be in the airline’s interest to sit face to face with crew and pilots and deal with the issues without rancour and hostility on both sides since they have no choice but to live with each other.

Two, DGCA - as usual - seems to have been willy-nilly pulled into this matter of delayed flights when it should be worrying about greater problems such as the mayhem that has been breaking all around on the safety and aircraft airworthiness.

Although it has not been the only one, low-fare airline SpiceJet, in particular, has been giving passengers the jitters. A cursory search on Google threw up a spate of incidents, including the latest one in which the Spicejet cockpit crew called Mayday and made an emergency landing after the aircraft filled with smoke! What’s even more alarming is that this was the fifth incident involving the airline’s aircraft in the last two months. Prior to this, in June, two SpiceJet incidents were reported — one a bird hit, which led to an engine shut down and the other following a fall in cabin pressure as the aircraft gained height. Similar incidents have been dogging the carrier for a while now, including one where severe turbulence -- a factor not in its or any carrier’s control – led to serious injuries to passengers.

SpiceJet is not the only offender but it certainly has had more than its fair share of troubles coming to the fore of late. Air safety, in general, is of paramount concern and, as I see it, the DGCA should have its plate full for the moment since safety is supposed to be the regulator’s prime concern. Delays in flights of one airline - even the largest one - on one day should not be a call for concern for the safety regulator. If anyone needs to concern itself with passenger inconvenience, it could at best be the ministry of civil aviation (MoCA), which at least till now has steered clear of this controversy.

Moreover, the DGCA poking its nose in matters like this is a cause for concern for cabin crew, first officers and commanders who often feel victimised by a nexus they claim exists between their employers and the authorities (read: DGCA) who directly control their destiny. Every time they express any kind of unhappiness with the airline they are employed, they fear the wrath of the DGCA. If this is indeed the case, this can only be classified as intimidation and should be actively discouraged for any sector to flourish.

And three – this may be seen as a broader plea – I truly think that we as a nation need to go easy on our fanatical obsession with awards. IndiGo -- ever since it started flying – has been awarded and conferred “best company to work for” and such awards ad nauseum. Let’s put a stop to this nonsense. If indeed this is the case, there is nobody better to reward a company than its own employees. Let’s give IndiGo staff a chance to confer these awards directly on their employer by rewarding them with their trust, loyalty and goodwill. Actions speak louder than words.

Indigo pilot issues

For aviation's sake, fix IndiGo's problems!