Chaos At Airports As More IndiGo Flights Cancelled Amid Crew Shortage

India's budget carrier IndiGo cancelled more flights at various airports across the country as it continued to battle operational disruptions, mainly due to crew shortages, for the third consecutive day on Thursday.

The flight operations of IndiGo, the country's largest airline, were disrupted in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and other cities, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at airports.

More than 30 IndiGo flights that were scheduled to depart from Delhi were cancelled early Thursday. Hyderabad also saw about 33 flight cancellations. A spokesperson for the airport in Bengaluru said that 73 IndiGo flights had been cancelled on Thursday. Several flights at Mumbai airport were also cancelled.

Sources told NDTV that more than 170 IndiGo flights are likely to be cancelled on Thursday.

"Do Anything But Get Us A Flight"

Videos from various airports showed passengers confronting the IndiGo staff.

"Do anything but just get us a flight," an angry woman passenger was heard telling the staff at the Mumbai airport.

A passenger said he was stuck at the Hyderabad airport for more than 15 hours.

"We have been at Hyderabad airport from yesterday at 6:00 PM until today at 9:00 AM — over 12 hours — with no action taken by IndiGo regarding the Pune flight. This situation has caused significant inconvenience," a user posted on X on Thursday morning.

"Total chaos at Hyderabad airport today — flights delayed 12+ hours. To not give accommodation, they kept pushing it by "just 2 more hours" every single time for 12 hours. Same excuse: crew is coming soon. Unacceptable," another user said.

Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad collectively reported about 200 cancellations on Wednesday.

IndiGo On Flight Chaos

IndiGo, which operates about 2,200 flights daily, acknowledged that its operations were "significantly disrupted" and "sincerely apologised" to its customers.

"A multitude of unforeseen operational challenges, including minor technology glitches, schedule changes linked to the winter season, adverse weather conditions, increased congestion in the aviation system, and the implementation of updated crew rostering rules (Flight Duty Time Limitations), had a negative compounding impact on our operations in a way that was not feasible to be anticipated," the airline said in a statement on Wednesday.

"To contain the disruption and restore stability, we have initiated calibrated adjustments to our schedules. These measures will remain in place for the next 48 hours and will allow us to normalise our operations and progressively recover our punctuality across the network," IndiGo said.

A major factor behind the chaos at IndiGo, which serves 90 domestic and 40 international destinations, is a sharp shortage of crew, particularly pilots, following the introduction of revised Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms in November, which mandate more rest hours and humane rosters.

Aviation Watchdog On IndiGo Mess

The aviation watchdog, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has called the airline officials for a meeting on Thursday. On Wednesday, the DGCA said it was investigating IndiGo flight disruptions and asked the airline to submit the reasons for the current situation as well as the plans to reduce flight cancellations and delays.

Citing recent operational performance information provided by IndiGo, the DGCA said a total of 1,232 flights were cancelled in November, including 755 flights due to crew and FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) constraints. As many as 258 flights were cancelled due to "airport/airspace restrictions", 92 flights were cancelled due to the ATC (Air Traffic Control) system failure, and 127 flights on account of other reasons, the DGCA said.

It said that the airline's overall On Time Performance (OTP) in November was 67.7 per cent compared to 84.1 per cent in October.

New FDTL Norms

The new FDTL norms entail increasing weekly rest periods to 48 hours, extending night hours, and limiting the number of night landings to only two, as against six earlier.

They were initially opposed by the domestic airlines, including IndiGo, but were subsequently rolled out by the DGCA following the Delhi High Court's directives.

While the first phase of these FDTL norms came into effect in July, the second phase was implemented from November 1.