IndiGo passengers stranded as the airline cancels 300 flights across key cities due to crisis Mode.

New Delhi: IndiGo, the top-notch airline in India, is now undergoing the most enormous operational crisis of the last few years. They have canceled more than 300 flights since Tuesday, and the passengers haven't been able to get flights from the airports of Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Bengaluru. Not only did the passengers wait at the terminals for hours only to be reported that their flights were canceled, but also the anger and chaos spread throughout the country.

What’s Happening with Massive Flight Cancellations?

The already bad situation turned worse in the middle of the week, when IndiGo cancelled over 100 flights per day and more than 200 alone were cancelled on Wednesday. The travel plans of the students, families, and office-goers have been disrupted as they were delayed for up to 10 hours during the busy winter season.

IndiGo's Struggles

The new DGCA regulations that came into effect in November are primarily responsible for the crisis. These regulations impose limits on flying hours and duty periods for pilots and cabin crew in such a way that supply of fatigued personnel is reduced. The move was aimed at improving flying standards but it indirectly led to a shortage of trained staff at IndiGo.

As per reports, “crew constraints” were the reason for 62% of IndiGo's flight cancellations in November and now the situation has steeply worsened.

Multiple Factors Contributed

Not only the crew shortage but also:

• Technical problems
• Rescheduling of winter timetable
• Dense fog and freezing cold
• Heavy airport congestions

The combination of all these factors and the crew shortage resulted in a scenario where the airline couldn’t operate at all. On Tuesday, only 35% of IndiGo flights were on time—making it the slowest airline compared to all Indian airlines that day.

Sky-High Airfares Troubled Passengers

Due to the less number of flights in the sky, the ticket prices have gone up tremendously. One-way tickets from Delhi to Bengaluru that were around ₹11,000 suddenly went up to ₹43,000 in the peak weekend.

Passengers vented their frustration through social media and complained about the never-ending waiting, constant rescheduling, and inadequate communication from the airline.

What’s Next for IndiGo?

DGCA has now called upon the top management of IndiGo to give explanations for the widespread disruption and to present a recovery plan—especially at the time when the daily number of domestic flyers in India exceeds 5 lakh.

IndiGo has stated “calibrated adjustments,” which implies that they will be doing a temporary cut in their operations so they can stabilize the staff availability. The airline predicts that within 48 hours operations will have returned to normal.