New Delhi: The Opposition, Friday, raised concerns over the IndiGo flight cancellations at major airports in the Rajya Sabha, with Congress leader Pramod Tiwari questioning the airline’s ‘monopoly’.
Earlier in the day, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi had slammed the government over the ‘Indigo fiasco’.
“IndiGo fiasco is the cost of this Govt’s monopoly model. Once again, it’s ordinary Indians who pay the price – in delays, cancellations and helplessness,” Gandhi said in a post on social media platform X.
Tiwari urged the government to apprise the House of the steps being taken by the Centre while also highlighting the impact of the cancellations on parliamentarians and the general public. He pointed out that the matter was related to the House and the members, as many would be going back to their constituencies over the weekend while the Parliament remains adjourned.
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, while responding to the House, said the matter was being reviewed by Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu.
“Before coming to the House, I spoke to the civil aviation minister and pointed out that not only do we need to inform the House but the people of the country too,” Rijiju told the House.
Tiwari, while raising the issue, said over 500 flights of Indigo have been cancelled so far Friday.
“Today is Friday, and a number of members would want to go back to their constituencies. So this question I’m raising is linked to the House as well as to the members. Ek flight ko puri tarah se monopoly karne ki wajah se ye samasya uthi hai. My request is that the minister who made the rules due to which this problem is arising, if he could make the house aware of the situation and till when will this problem be resolved,” Tiwari added.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also moved a notice under Rule 180 in Rajya Sabha, requesting the Civil Aviation Minister to make a statement on the disruption of IndiGo airlines’ operations that has led to flight cancellations and has caused inconvenience to passengers across the country.
In her notice, Chaturvedi cited passenger safety and convenience, calling it a matter of “urgent public importance.”
“The widespread disruption in IndiGo Airlines’ operations on Wednesday, resulting in severe delays of up to seven hours and cancellation of more than 70 flights nationwide, including major airports such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad caused by an acute shortage of crew and other operational issues. The situation led to significant hardship for passengers, with several key domestic routes and international services such as the Mumbai-Maldives flight severely affected during peak hours,” Chaturvedi said.
So, the airline has managed to arm-twist the DGCA into submission and withdrawing of instructions regarding weekly rest!
What a pathetically helpless and shameful retraction by the DGCA to airlines that have held not just the passengers but the government hostage . pic.twitter.com/txRg95sT78
— Priyanka Chaturvedi🇮🇳 (@priyankac19) December 5, 2025
The Rajya Sabha MP said the scale of the breakdown raises serious concerns regarding preparedness, regulatory oversight, and passenger safety and convenience.
“The matter is of urgent public importance as thousands of passengers were stranded, normal airport functioning was affected, and recurrent large-scale disruptions in airline services highlight a need for immediate government intervention, accountability measures, and safeguards to prevent future occurrences. I request that the Minister make a statement on the matter at an early date,” she added.
Thousands of passengers were left stranded at airports across India after IndiGo’s mass cancellation of flights continued for the fourth consecutive day.
Indigo has attributed the chaos to several things, including schedule modifications, technical issues and a personnel shortfall brought on by revised crew rostering regulations.
(Edited by Sampurna Panigrahi)
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