The ongoing large-scale operational disruptions at IndiGo, one of India's largest airlines, have led to heartbreaking scenes at airports, with two bereaved passengers being among the worst affected. On Friday, a woman travelling with her husband's coffin was left stranded at Assam’s Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, her journey to Kolkata for his last rites thrown into chaos.
Heart-Wrenching Ordeal for Bereaved Passengers
The passenger, who had travelled from Shillong, was attempting to transport her deceased husband's remains to his hometown in Kolkata for the final rites. Visibly emotional, she revealed that her IndiGo flight was cancelled without any prior intimation, leaving her devastated and uncertain about how to reach on time. "I have come all the way from Shillong in the morning. My husband passed away, and I have come here to transport the casket all the way to Kolkata, to be buried in his hometown," she told ANI.
Her distress was compounded by a complete lack of communication from the airline. She stated that repeated attempts to reach IndiGo's customer support failed to yield any concrete update on her flight's status. "We booked an IndiGo flight, and till now we have no information whether the flight is going to take off or not... I'm worried whether that flight is going to be cancelled or whether it's going to take off," she said.
In a disturbingly similar incident on the same day, another woman named Namita was stuck at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport with her late father's ashes. She was headed to Delhi and then onward to Dehradun for her father's asthi visarjan (immersion of ashes) ceremony, which had a fixed schedule. Her flight was also cancelled without prior notice, jeopardizing the sacred ritual.
Scale of the Disruption and Soaring Airfares
These individual tragedies unfolded against the backdrop of severe operational disruptions for IndiGo. The airline acknowledged that Friday was its most severely affected day, leading it to cancel all domestic flights departing from Delhi Airport until midnight. The total number of cancellations across its network exceeded 1,000 flights.
The widespread cancellations triggered an unprecedented spike in last-minute airfares across other carriers, as stranded passengers scrambled for alternatives. According to data from airline websites cited by PTI:
- A one-way, one-stop SpiceJet economy ticket on the Kolkata–Mumbai route for December 6 soared to nearly ₹90,000.
- An Air India Mumbai–Bhubaneswar ticket touched ₹84,485.
While Delhi Airport later stated that operations were "getting back to normalcy," it urged passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
Apology and Aftermath
Facing massive public outcry, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers issued a public apology on Friday for the severe disruptions. He assured passengers that all efforts were being made to restore normal operations as swiftly as possible.
The twin incidents highlight the profound human cost of the airline's operational crisis, moving beyond mere inconvenience to affecting deeply personal and time-sensitive journeys of grief and final rites. The crisis has put a spotlight on passenger communication protocols and contingency planning for airlines during large-scale disruptions.
