India's aviation sector was thrown into chaos on Thursday as the country's largest carrier, IndiGo, was forced to cancel approximately 300 flights. The mass cancellations left thousands of passengers stranded at airports across the nation, facing uncertainty, long delays, and a severe lack of communication from the airline.
Root Cause: A Critical Misjudgment on Pilot Requirements
The disruption has been directly attributed to what the airline itself admitted was a gross underestimation of pilot requirements. This miscalculation coincided with the implementation of the second phase of the stricter Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules mandated by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The regulator confirmed that IndiGo's planning gaps and misjudgment led to the operational meltdown.
Compounding the issue was IndiGo's ambitious winter schedule, which commenced on 26 October and featured a 6% increase in domestic flights compared to the summer season. The combination of more flights and stricter mandatory rest periods for crew created an unsustainable shortfall of available pilots, triggering a ripple effect of cancellations.
Passenger Anguish and Widespread Airport Chaos
The human cost of the operational failure was immense and played out in real-time on social media. Passengers reported a catastrophic breakdown in customer service, with digital rebooking systems failing and customer care lines being unreachable.
One passenger, Mohit Krishali, detailed a harrowing ordeal on Twitter, stating he sat on a Pune-bound flight for five hours before deplaning, only to then face an interminable wait for his checked baggage. Another traveller, Srishti Magan, said the airline failed to confirm the cancellation of an 11 am flight until 4 pm, which resulted in her missing a family wedding and suffering significant financial and emotional distress.
The scale of the disruption was so vast that comedian Atul Khatri remarked on the number of sandwiches going to waste due to the cancellations. Physical queues of over a hundred passengers became a common sight, as IndiGo's systems buckled under the pressure.
Ongoing Disruptions and the Path Forward
The crisis is far from over. IndiGo has officially warned passengers that cancellations will continue over the next two to three days. In a bid to stabilise operations, the airline plans to proactively reduce its flight schedule starting 8 December.
In a significant move, IndiGo has sought operational exemptions for its Airbus A320 fleet from the DGCA, requesting relief until 10 February 2026. The airline stated it expects to restore stable operations by that date. The fallout has not been limited to IndiGo passengers alone. At congested airports like Pune, grounded IndiGo aircraft prevented other airlines from operating their flights, magnifying the nationwide impact.
The airline's on-time performance had already cratered to a dismal 19.7% on Wednesday, a day before the mass cancellations. With the crisis set to linger and North India's fog season approaching, air travellers across the country are bracing for further delays and disruptions in the coming days.
