A major operational breakdown at Pune's Lohegaon Airport on Thursday plunged air travel into chaos, with widespread cancellations, extensive delays, and hundreds of frustrated passengers left stranded for hours on aircraft. The crisis, primarily triggered by a severe crew shortage at budget carrier IndiGo, led to a cascading effect that disrupted the schedules of multiple airlines.
Cascading Delays and Cancellations Bring Airport to a Halt
The day saw a total of 16 IndiGo flights — eight arrivals and eight departures — cancelled. Over 19 other flights faced inordinate delays. The root cause was the prolonged grounding of multiple IndiGo aircraft awaiting operating crew, which led to a critical shortage of parking bays at the constrained airport.
Pune Airport Director Santosh Dhoke confirmed the issue, stating, "The primary cause has been the extended ground presence of multiple IndiGo aircraft awaiting availability of operating crew, resulting in the prolonged occupation of parking bays." This severely constrained the bay availability, causing sequential delays for arrivals and departures across all airlines operating from Pune.
With only 10 parking bays available, the situation became dire. At one point, as many as 11 IndiGo aircraft were on the ground, occupying most bays. Sources indicated that until early afternoon, three bays had IndiGo aircraft listed as AOG (Aircraft on Ground), while the rest were occupied by its delayed flights. The airport authority had to intervene, asking the airline to vacate two bays for other carriers by late afternoon, warning that otherwise its new arrivals would not be permitted to land.
Passenger Ordeal: Hours-Long Waits on Tarmac and Diverted Flights
The operational snarl had a direct and painful impact on passengers. Many were forced to sit inside landed aircraft for three to five hours due to the unavailability of a vacant parking bay.
Megh Gandhi, on a flight from Ahmedabad, landed around 4:30 AM but could only deboard at 7:45 AM. "The captain clearly said he had no clue when the deboarding would happen. He said even the ATC was not giving them any proper information," Gandhi recounted.
In an even longer ordeal, Vinod Moorthy's IndiGo flight landed at 4:45 AM, but passengers remained confined until 9:27 AM. "The wait in the apron area inside the aircraft spoiled it all," he said. Similarly, Sumit Kadam from Goa landed at 5:30 AM but disembarked only around 8:30 AM, citing a huge queue of aircraft.
The congestion was so severe that it led to the diversion of six flights, including two from IndiGo. Sameer Ranade, booked on a FLY91 flight to Goa, witnessed his incoming aircraft from Goa turn back due to no landing space, only to return to Pune hours later around 12:30 PM.
Baggage Chaos and Multi-Agency Response
The fallout extended beyond delays. Passengers on cancelled flights faced a nightmare retrieving checked-in luggage. In one distressing instance, the wife of a senior Army officer had her Delhi flight cancelled, but her luggage, containing essential medicines, was already loaded onto the aircraft. An Army official trying to assist said, "There was no one to assist us... There has been no response from the airline despite trying for over three hours."
Airport Director Dhoke stated that officials were working closely with all airlines, ground handling agencies, Air Traffic Control (ATC), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), and terminal teams to manage apron congestion, facilitate passenger support, and minimise further impact while progressively restoring the flight schedule.
The incident highlights the vulnerability of Indian airports with limited infrastructure to single-point failures, where a crisis at one major airline can bring the entire airport's operations to a grinding halt, leaving passengers to bear the brunt.
