Seventh Day of IndiGo Disruptions: 251 Flights Cancelled at Two Major Airports

Mumbai: IndiGo cancelled over 250 flights from Delhi and Bengaluru airports on Monday as disruptions in the airline’s operations continued for the seventh consecutive day. Sources said a total of 251 flights were cancelled from the two major airports.

At Delhi airport, 134 flights were cancelled, including 75 departures and 59 arrivals. In Bengaluru, the carrier cancelled 117 services, with 65 arrivals and 62 departures.

Meanwhile, the aviation safety regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has extended the deadline till 6 PM on Monday for IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer and Accountable Manager Isidro Porqueras to respond to its show cause notice on the ongoing operational disruptions. The notices were issued on Saturday, with the DGCA pointing to large-scale failures in planning, oversight and resource management. The regulator had initially given 24 hours to submit replies.

IndiGo has been under pressure from both the government and passengers after cancelling hundreds of flights since December 2. The airline cited changes in pilot flight duty time limitation norms as the reason for the large-scale disruption, which left several lakh passengers stranded at airports across the country.

For the first three days, the airline did not officially acknowledge the scale of cancellations. It was only on Friday, when a record 1,600 flights were cancelled in a single day — the highest in Indian aviation history — that CEO Pieter Elbers released a video message apologising to passengers. In the message, he admitted that a large number of flights were being cancelled, but did not specify that 1,600 flights would be affected that day.

The new Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms, which apply to all domestic airlines, have been implemented in two phases from July 1 and November 1 this year. These rules mandate longer weekly rest periods of 48 hours, extended night hours and restrict the number of night landings to two, compared to six earlier. Domestic airlines, including IndiGo and Tata Group-owned Air India, had initially opposed the new norms.

The norms were originally set to come into effect from March 2024. However, airlines sought a phased implementation, citing the need for more crew. Following directions from the Delhi High Court, the DGCA rolled out the rules in a phased manner with certain variations.

IndiGo has already secured temporary relaxations in the second phase of the norms, which will remain in force till February 10.