New Delhi, Dec. 10 -- IndiGo Chairman Vikram Singh Mehta has spoken out for the first time since last week's wave of flight cancellations and delays, calling the disruption a "blemish" on the airline's otherwise clean record. The IndiGo chairman also dismissed allegations that the cancellations were engineered as he insisted that airline made no attempt to bypass the new pilot fatigue and rest rules known as Flight Duty Times Limitations (FDTL) rules.

In a statement, Vikram Singh Mehta said, "IndiGo has followed the pilot fatigue (FDTL) rules as they came into effect. We operated under the new rules throughout. both in July and November. We did not attempt to bypass them. Nor did we do anything that negatively impacted our unblemished tr...