NEW DELHI, Dec 5 (Bernama-dpa) — Indian airports experienced chaotic scenes on Friday as IndiGo, the country’s largest airline, cancelled hundreds of domestic flights for the third consecutive day, leaving thousands of passengers stranded, reported German Press Agency (dpa).
IndiGo, which has more than 60 per cent share of India’s domestic market, faced a cascading crisis after new pilot rostering rules, restricting night flights and limiting duty hours, left it short of captains.
The company apologised to passengers on the social media platform X, acknowledging “a serious operational crisis”. Airline teams were working with the Ministry of Aviation and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to reinstate regular operations, it said.
IndiGo said it had cancelled 1,000 flights on Friday, which is about half of all flights it operates daily to various destinations across the country.
These included 250 flights from the capital Delhi and 100 each from major cities like Bengaluru and Chennai. Others were delayed for up to 12 hours, leaving frustrated, angry passengers thronging the airports.
Among those interviewed by local news channels was a surgeon who missed several scheduled operations, a groom who missed his wedding and several people who missed connecting flights.
Amid the chaos, the DGCA temporarily withdrew its flight duty limitation rules with immediate effect, considering the interest of passengers, “especially senior citizens, students and patients, and others who rely on timely air travel for essential needs”, said an Aviation Ministry statement.
IndiGo had sought relief from the new rules limiting flight duty times after they were announced two years ago and introuced in two phases on July 1 and November 1, The Economic Times reported.
In a detailed review meeting, the DGCA found that IndiGo’s operations breakdown had been brought on by challenges in implementing the second phase of the revised fatigue-management rules, gaps in crew management planning and winter season constraints such as poor visibility and high demand.
The government statement said it expected complete restoration of flight services in a couple of days. The government has ordered a probe into the disruption.
— BERNAMA-dpa