Compliance taken lightly

My first choice when I need to fly will now become one of the choice when I fly in future.  A reputation built over years of hard work has taken a jolt which will need another good amount of time to re-build - hope this happens soon.  

To me it seems to be a "simple" miss on Indigo side which proved too costly, they did not take the new rules notified by Government on Flight Duty Time Limitations or FDTL seriously and did not work to comply by it 100%.  Maybe they were expecting it to be relaxed or extended for further period of time, it was not to be and all chaos followed.  The below is the cost of this "miss/lapse" till now only on refunds (other losses not withstanding) 

A total of 586,705 PNRs (for period between 01 to 07 December, 2025 were cancelled and refunded, amounting to total of Rs 569.65 crores. A total of 9,55,591 PNRs (for period between 21 November to 07 December, 2025 (2359hrs)) were cancelled and refunded, amounting to total of Rs 827 crores. 4500 bags were delivered to customers out of a total of 9000 bags. Target to deliver balance bags in the next 36 hours. Today, IndiGo plans to operate 1802 flights to 137 out of 138 destinations, with 500 cancellations: Source : Ministry of civil aviation

 Lessons Learnt : 

• Compliance to rule of law is paramount 
• Being big does not mean immunity to changes in compliance
• Management to take change in laws seriously and work on it immediately 
• Cost is paramount, we need to keep it minimal.  But we need to understand "Compliance comes with a Cost" - we need to accept this.  We can optimise cost but cannot avoid/reduce it at cost of compliance