Web desk: Air travel in India faced major disruption for a fourth day on Friday after IndiGo cancelled around 500 flights, including all departures from New Delhi.
The government announced special relief measures to help the country’s largest airline.
The cancellations come after Indian authorities introduced stricter rules for pilots. The new regulations limit flying hours and place tighter restrictions on night flights.
IndiGo flights
IndiGo admitted it did not prepare properly before the rules came into effect on November 1.
With air travel nearing its December peak, the airline has had to cancel numerous flights, stranding thousands of passengers.
IndiGo, which handles over 60 per cent of domestic flights in India, apologised to its customers.
“These last few days we have a serious operational crisis,” the airline said. “While this will not get resolved overnight, we assure you we will do everything in our capacity to help you in the meantime.”
Following a request by IndiGo, India’s civil aviation authorities granted temporary exemptions from some of the new rules to help the airline manage the crisis.
IndiGo said it expects “progressive improvement” in operations from Saturday, though it had earlier warned full recovery might take until February 10.
Other major airlines, including Air India and Akasa, have not cancelled flights due to the new rules.
On Friday, all IndiGo departures from Delhi airport were cancelled, affecting about 235 flights.
Chennai airport also cancelled all departing IndiGo flights. Mumbai saw 165 flight cancellations, Bengaluru 102, and Hyderabad 92, according to airport sources.
Other major airports cancelled IndiGo flights until 6 PM local time.
At many airports, passengers expressed frustration. Videos on social media showed people arguing with staff.
One video from Bengaluru airport showed a group chanting, “Down with IndiGo! Down with IndiGo!”
Another showed a father demanding a sanitary pad for his daughter. In Delhi, dozens of children were seen waiting in terminals since early morning, tired and hungry.
IndiGo shares fell nearly 3 per cent on Friday, taking the weekly loss to 10.3 per cent.
