Days after IndiGo failed to carry the luggage of its passengers on Delhi-Istanbul flight, regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked the airline to reduce passenger load factor by 20 per cent on the sector in order to prevent such incidents in the future.

The airline has been asked to carry a maximum of 157 passengers as against 186 passengers on a Delhi-Istanbul flight operated by A320 aircraft. For A321, the airline has been asked to carry 173 passengers as against 222, sources aware of the development said.

The advisory has been issued in light of the flights facing westerlies or strong high-speed winds on the route. An aircraft operating against such winds needs to utilise higher fuel as the travel time gets extended. As a result, this either mandates for a reduction in load factor (passengers/cargo) or a fuel halt.

“Airlines across the world face challenges due to headwinds in winter months. It’s for the airline to decide the optimum mix. A forced restriction could disturb the route economics as lower capacity on offer may not mean increased fares to recover the costs for what is the longest route in IndiGo network,” aviation analyst Ameya Joshi said.

On September 15, the airline left the luggage of all its passengers in Delhi and passengers were shocked when they were informed about it after the flight landed in Istanbul.

“Unfortunately due to the exceptionally heavy headwind, we had certain payload restrictions on a few fights to Istanbul which lead to offloading of a limited number of checked-in baggage. In light of these limitations, we have upgraded our aircraft and adjusted the payload as long as the prevailing wind conditions remain, so all the left behind baggage will be carried today. We regret the inconvenience caused to our passengers," IndiGo had said on September 16.

Several passengers expressed their anger and disappointment at this via tweets on micro-blogging platform Twitter.

Just flew in on @IndiGo6E flight 6E 11 from Delhi to Istanbul last evening. We received this piece of paper when we were waiting for our luggage at the belt. The airline did not load the luggage of the ENTIRE FLIGHT. Not a single passenger got their luggage (1/n) #shameonindigo pic.twitter.com/7KF2VT0f2O

— Chinmay Dabke (@chinmaydabke) September 16, 2019

First Published:Sept 20, 2019 3:56 PM IST