NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has given a one-time, 24-hour extension to IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and COO Isidre Porqueras, who is also the accountable manager, to reply to its show-cause notices issued on Saturday. While they were asked to respond within 24 hours, the two on Sunday requested “extension of time at least till 6 pm, Monday, or.. as deemed fit” to submit a detailed response, given the scale of IndiGo’s flight network and multitude of unavoidable factors leading to the operational disruption of IndiGo.”After reviewing their requests, DGCA has extended the deadline till 6 pm on Monday (Dec 8) “with a clear direction that no further extensions will be permitted.” The regulator has “cautioned that failure to submit a complete and comprehensive reply within the extended timeline will result in the regulator proceeding ex-parte, based on the available records,” said an official. It is monitoring “the situation closely and remains committed to ensuring passenger safety, regulatory compliance, and timely restoration of normal airline operations.”As accountable manager, Isidre Porqueras holds this position on the approval of the DGCA. If the regulator withdraws the same, the airline will have to appoint some other person to the mandatory position. The regulator’s notice is least to have pointed out that the main reason for the flight disruptions was not preparing to implement the new flight duty time limitation (FDTL) that had come into force on Nov 1, 2025. The notice is learnt to say there were lapses in planning, oversight and resource management for the same which is violative of the rules.Apart from these lapses, the notice also points out that IndiGo neither gave required information on flight cancellations to passengers, nor did it provide facilities that have to be mandatorily given in cases of cancellations and delays. “Such large-scale operational failures indicate significant lapses in planning, oversight, and resource management, and is prima facie non-compliance on the part of the airline… as the CEO (and accountable manager) you are responsible for ensuring effective management of the airline but you have failed in your duty to ensure timely arrangements for conduct of reliable operations and the availability of requisite facilities to the passengers,” the notice says.