Chaos at Indian airports as IndiGo cancels over 1,000 flights leaving passengers stranded
New Delhi: Air travel across India was in turmoil for a fourth straight day today after country’s largest airline, IndiGo, cancelled over 1,000 flights, including all departures from New Delhi.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the carrier, which has a 60% market share in India and flies more than 2,000 flights a day, has been facing pilot shortages after it failed to adapt to new crew rostering rules.
Thousands of passengers are stranded across India. On Friday, Delhi airport announced all IndiGo departures were canceled for the day, a number that a source put at 235 flights. Chennai airport also announced all departing IndiGo flights were annulled. The airline cancelled 165 flights in Mumbai, 102 in Bengaluru, 92 in Hyderabad. Other major metro airports saw IndiGo flights up to 6 p.m. (1230 GMT) cancelled on Friday.
IndiGo has said operations will return to full normalcy only by 10 February, and has sought temporary relief on the new rules that call for more rest hours and restricted night-duty. The airline has also said it will reduce its flight operations to minimise disruptions from 8 December.
India’s aviation regulator said the disruptions were primarily on account of “misjudgment and planning gaps” in implementing the new flight duty time limitation rules. Reports suggest IndiGo has been granted a waiver from the new pilot rest rules, and the ban on combining pilot leave with weekly rest has been eased to stabilise operations.
But the airline has attracted sharp criticism from the Airline Pilots Association of India, which said any relief granted to the airline on duty timings undermines the spirit of the new regulations and “gravely” compromises the safety of the flying public.
Passengers have taken to social media, expressing anger about not being given up-to-date information and remaining stranded at the airport without food. Singapore’s High Commissioner to India Simon Wong said he was “lost for words” as he joined the thousands stranded at the airport, having to miss the wedding of his young staff member.
