India’s largest airline IndiGo cancels over 1,200 flights, causing airport chaos and stranding thousands of passengers amid operational issues.
NEW DELHI: Chaos gripped Indian airports after the country’s largest airline, IndiGo, cancelled over 1,200 flights, stranding thousands of passengers.
The company blamed the disruption on “unforeseen operational challenges” including technical glitches, adverse weather and new crew rostering rules.
India’s aviation watchdog ordered an investigation and demanded IndiGo submit plans to ease the interruptions, which have persisted since Monday.
Passengers vented their anger online, with one airport user on X describing “complete mayhem” with delays of up to eight hours and “no staff” on hand to help.
IndiGo said it was offering customers alternative travel arrangements and refunds while working to restore its services.
The company acknowledged its “significantly disrupted” operations were partly due to new crew rostering rules having a “negative compounding impact”.
The rules, which came into effect last month, aim to give pilots and crew more rest periods to enhance passenger safety.
The disruption is another setback for the no-frills carrier, which has built its reputation on punctuality.
Last week, 200 of its planes were affected when Airbus issued an alert for an urgent upgrade for 6,000 aircraft worldwide.
India is one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, hitting 500,000 daily flyers last month for the first time.
