India’s busiest airline, IndiGo, is facing the most severe breakdown in its operating history. For more than a week, passengers across the country have been met with long queues, confusion at check-in counters, and last-minute cancellations as the carrier struggles to restore regular service. Since last Tuesday, more than four thousand five hundred flights have been cancelled, and the crisis showed no sign of slowing down on Monday.
The pattern of cancellations reveals how quickly the situation escalated. It began with over one hundred and fifty flights being scrapped on Tuesday, followed by close to two hundred the next day when the airline’s punctuality fell below twenty percent. Thursday saw over three hundred cancellations, and on Friday the disruption peaked with nearly one thousand six hundred flights cancelled in a single day. The numbers remained high through the weekend, with hundreds more flights withdrawn on both Saturday and Sunday. By Monday afternoon, airports in Delhi, Chennai, and Bengaluru had already recorded more than three hundred cancellations.
The impact has been most visible at major hubs. Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Kolkata have been hit hardest. Monday brought another wave of cancellations that left terminals overcrowded late into the night. Baggage piled up unclaimed at Delhi’s Terminal One, IndiGo’s largest base, and exhausted travellers searched for their belongings while attempting to rebook cancelled journeys. In Bengaluru alone, more than sixty arrivals and a similar number of departures were cancelled, and Chennai recorded more than seventy cancellations.
Scenes of stranded passengers waiting on the floors of departure halls continued throughout the day, many of them without food, accommodation, or guidance.
Several factors converged to cause the airline’s collapse. A long-standing shortage of pilots had already stretched IndiGo’s resources. A weekend software advisory for the Airbus A320 slowed operations further, pushing flights past midnight at the very moment new rest and duty regulations for crew came into force. These fatigue-control rules require longer weekly rest, limit night landings, expand the night duty window, and impose tighter restrictions on flying hours during late-night operations. Many pilots were automatically placed into mandatory rest, leaving the airline without the manpower to operate its winter schedule, which had expanded significantly from late October.
Pilot associations argue that IndiGo underestimated the staffing it needed and failed to hire in time, despite having advance notice of the upcoming regulations for almost two years. They also say the airline operated for months with minimal backup crews, making any disruption likely to snowball.
With the crisis worsening, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation intervened. The regulator issued a notice to IndiGo’s chief executive asking the airline to explain why it had not been better prepared for the new roster rules. It also relaxed one provision of the fatigue guidelines to give airlines some immediate breathing room in managing weekly rest for crew.
IndiGo, meanwhile, has acknowledged the seriousness of the situation and has begun rolling out a series of relief measures for customers. The airline says it has already refunded more than six hundred crore rupees. Travellers booked between December five and December fifteen are being allowed to cancel or reschedule their tickets at no additional charge. Hotel rooms and ground transportation have been arranged in multiple cities, food is being provided at terminals, senior citizens have been offered lounge access where possible, and thousands of misplaced bags have been located and returned. The airline has also increased its customer service workforce and added automated support tools.
Passengers are being repeatedly advised to check their flight status before leaving home and to avoid travelling to the airport if their flight is already listed as cancelled.
The turmoil has also shaken confidence in the wider travel industry. With IndiGo and Air India carrying most of the country’s passengers, travellers have had few alternatives. Travel agencies report cancelled holiday plans and dropping demand during what should have been the busiest period of the season. Many stranded passengers describe the situation as extremely stressful, especially those travelling for medical needs or family emergencies.
IndiGo expects operations to stabilise around December ten and says that nearly all destinations on its network are active again. The carrier’s crisis management team meets daily to monitor progress, and its chief executive has informed employees that the airline is gradually recovering.
