Senior Vice-President of IndiGo’s Operations Control Centre (OCC), has been removed from his operational role as part of regulatory action over the airline’s mass flight cancellations and delays in early December last year.
In its submission, the Centre said the action against Herter followed serious operational failures that led to widespread passenger inconvenience across India between December 3 and December 5, when IndiGo cancelled 2,507 flights and delayed 1,852 others, affecting more than three lakh travellers.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which investigated the disruption, found management-level lapses in flight planning and crew deployment. As a corrective step, the regulator ordered that Jason Herter be relieved of his responsibilities at the OCC, a key unit that oversees daily flight operations, scheduling and disruption management. The DGCA has also directed that he should not be assigned any future accountable position, signalling a rare leadership-level intervention by the aviation regulator.
The Centre informed the court that the action against Herter forms part of a wider enforcement framework, under which IndiGo has been fined Rs 22.20 crore and asked to submit a Rs 50 crore bank guarantee to ensure future compliance with aviation safety and operational norms.
