IndiGo Turmoil: Over 200 Flights Cancelled; Upto 10hrs delays impact Air Services! What is the Exact Reason?
IndiGo Turmoil: Over 200 Flights Cancelled; Upto 10hrs delays impact Air Services! What is the Exact Reason?
Lakhs of passengers faced delays of up to 10 hours as manual check-in, winter disruptions and new crew-duty rules triggered nationwide chaos.
India’s largest airline has entered one of its worst operational phases in recent months, with more than 200 IndiGo flights cancelled on Wednesday and delays stretching up to 10 hours at major airports. The disruption has affected lakhs of passengers across Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and several other cities during a peak travel period.
IndiGo’s operations had already been under strain for the past few weeks, with on-time performance sliding sharply. But the situation escalated this week when a mix of pilot shortages, technology glitches and growing aviation congestion triggered mass cancellations. In November alone, the airline cancelled 1,232 flights, with a majority linked to crew and Flight Duty Time Limit (FDTL) constraints.
The impact was visible early on Wednesday, when check-in systems at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport slowed down, forcing all airlines to shift temporarily to manual processes. Crowding intensified, leading many travellers to miss flights despite arriving on time. Similar scenes unfolded at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, where long queues and repeated system errors caused passengers to wait for hours.
Some airports informed flyers that a global Microsoft Windows-linked outage had affected their IT systems. Microsoft subsequently clarified that its systems were functioning normally. Regardless of the cause, check-in issues affected multiple airlines, including IndiGo, SpiceJet, Akasa Air and Air India Express, worsening the traffic bottleneck.
With winter fog patterns beginning and weather-related scheduling changes kicking in, the aviation system is dealing with its seasonal load. IndiGo said a “multitude of unforeseen operational challenges” — including minor tech glitches, winter-related schedule changes, adverse weather conditions, increased congestion and the revised crew-rostering rules — compounded the problem in ways that could not be anticipated.
As cancellations rose, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation called the airline’s senior leadership to explain the unprecedented disruption and submit a recovery roadmap. Only 35% of IndiGo flights operated on time on Tuesday, highlighting the scale of the operational breakdown.
IndiGo has now reworked its flight schedule for the next 48 hours, cutting back operations to stabilise the network. The airline has assured that passengers will not face additional financial burden and is offering refunds or alternative arrangements to those affected. It said its teams are working round the clock to restore normalcy as quickly as possible and improve on-time performance across its routes.
For now, travellers are advised to check flight status frequently, arrive early for departures and expect delays as airlines continue manual processing at some airports.
