New Delhi: Sweeping flight cancellations by India’s largest carrier, IndiGo, are leaving behind a trail of missed weddings and lost business opportunities — and flaring tempers with families left stranded at terminals.
At New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, the Terminal 2 departure hall looked like a “campus protest gone wild: People sitting cross-legged on the floor, some asleep after overnight cancellations, others hurling abuses at staff on the front desk,” said Chanchal Agarwal, chief investment officer at Equirus Wealth Pvt.
Chants of “IndiGo Murdabad!” — a Hindi slogan meaning “Down With IndiGo!” — echoed through the building, said Agarwal, who eventually flew to Mumbai on Akasa Air.
Since taking to the skies in 2006, IndiGo has grown to control two-thirds of all local traffic, consistently making money in the process. The carrier launched operations from New Delhi with one Airbus SE A320 jet and has since expanded its fleet to more than 400 aircraft.
The carrier is known for placing record orders with the European planemaker as it looks to deploy more than 1,000 jets.
IndiGo said in a statement on X that Friday would be the worst day in terms of cancellations, and the company expects gradual improvements from Saturday. The company will waive cancellation fees for bookings through Dec. 15 and will arrange thousands of hotel rooms for stranded passengers.
The flight disruptions began Tuesday and now exceed 800 in number, rippling across the aviation network. Around noon time at Dehradun’s Jolly Grant Airport, all outgoing flights — five IndiGo and one Air India — were delayed. In Mumbai, passengers couldn’t retrieve their checked baggage because ground staff were missing.
Switching airlines was possible but came with a huge cost. Air India seats were selling for 52,000 rupees ($578) per person for a one-way trip to Delhi — nearly 10 times the average fare.
Yet for those stranded in smaller towns, even money couldn’t buy a way out. At Kannur International Airport, Preksha Vivekanandan, who works with the UK’s National Health Service, faced a desperate situation. After being told of the cancellation, she couldn’t find any available buses or trains.
“I’m completely stuck and have no idea what to do next,” she said.
Online Wedding Reception
The cancellations — triggered by staff shortages linked to new pilot rest rules and technical glitches — upended milestones and livelihoods. A couple in the southern state of Karnataka attended their own wedding reception online after being stranded, the NDTV news channel reported.
Business was hit, too. Praveen Khandelwal, a federal lawmaker representing Delhi’s Chandni Chowk, said hundreds of trade leaders were stranded en route to a major conference in the capital.
“The entire purpose of holding the meeting was defeated,” he said, calling IndiGo’s conduct “apathetic, insensitive and completely unacceptable.”
At Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, fury spilled over to rival airlines. Hundreds of angry passengers thronged the gates, shouting curses at IndiGo — a melee that delayed other carriers, as well.
IndiGo’s mass cancellations stand out as one of the worst aviation management failures in recent years, threatening confidence in India’s aviation system.
“This is not merely an airline issue,” Khandelwal said. “This is a public rights issue.”
This report is auto-generated from Bloomberg news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
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