IndiGo told to keep 15% seats vacant on Delhi-Istanbul flights

NEW DELHI: The aviation regulator on Friday told IndiGo Airlines to fly its planes with 15-22% seats unoccupied while operating on the Delhi-Istanbul route on strong headwind days. The budget airline’s 186-seater Airbus A320 Neos should have up to 157 passengers on board and the 222-seater A321s no more than 173 flyers on such days.
Directorate General of Civil Aviation chief Arun Kumar’s directive came after passengers on many of IndiGo’s Delhi-Istanbul flights in recent days had discovered after reaching their destination that their baggage hadn’t taken off from Delhi.
In its defence, the airline had said that due to strong headwinds, the Delhi-Istanbul flying time had been over seven hours in the past few weeks, which is close to the maximum operating range of the single-aisle Airbus A320/321s used by it. To carry more fuel, the baggage was left behind last Sunday and a few more days of all or most of the passengers, it added. Strong headwinds for the west-bound flights will continue for some months.