Travel chaos in India worsened after India’s largest airline, IndiGo, canceled hundreds of scheduled flights on Friday after experiencing widespread disruptions across its network for three days.
The airline, which has a 60% market share in India and operates more than 2,000 flights a day, is facing a pilot shortage due to its failure to enforce new crew roster rules.
Thousands of passengers have been stranded across India and all IndiGo flights from the capital Delhi have been canceled amid the busy travel season.
IndiGo said operations would only be fully normalized by February 10 and sought temporary relief from new rules mandating more break periods and limited night shifts.
The airline also said it would reduce flight operations from December 8 to minimize disruption.
The government said it was closely monitoring the situation, with the Federal Aviation Minister expressing “clear dissatisfaction” with the way the airline was handling the situation.
India’s aviation regulator said in a separate statement that the confusion was largely due to “poor judgment and gaps in planning” in enforcing the new flight duty time limit rules.
The regulator has directed IndiGo to immediately submit a detailed plan for crew recruitment, training, roster restructuring, safety risk assessment and other mitigation measures.
Meanwhile, the airline has drawn sharp criticism from the Airline Pilots’ Association of India, which said the airline’s relief measures on working hours undermine the spirit of the new rules and “severely” compromise the safety of the flying public.
The new rules will allow pilots more rest, and one of the key changes is that pilots will be required to make two night landings per week, down from six under the old rules.
December is the peak month for travel to India, with vacations and the peak wedding season beginning.
IndiGo said it would waive all cancellation/reschedule requests for travel from December 5 to 15. We are also preparing hotel rooms and food for passengers whose travel is disrupted.
But several passengers took to social media to express their anger at being stranded at the airport without access to updated information and food.
Singapore’s High Commissioner to India, Simon Wong, said he was “speechless” as he joined thousands of others stranded at the airport after failing to attend the wedding of a young employee.
Major airports in Delhi, Mumbai and other cities have issued advisories asking passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
