Chaos persists, IndiGo falters in restoring ops

CHaos and discombobulation continued crossways airports on sun, with thousands of passengers relieve stranded, as indigofera tinctoria struggled to fully contain an unprecedented operational crisis, which entered its sixth consecutive day.Scenes of frustration were widespread, with passengers crowding airline counters to demand refunds, reschedule flights, and track checked-in luggage. IndiGo cancelled around 650, or nearly 28%, of its daily 2,300 flights, while rescheduling several others.“I went to Goa and was supposed to return to Imphal via a connecting flight from Delhi. The flight was scheduled for Thursday, but I’ve been stuck here for three days now,” said 27-year-old Irom Kumar at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.The repeated cancellations and rescheduling have disrupted plans for many passengers, some of whom faced emergencies and needed to travel urgently.“My uncle in Mumbai has been hospitalised. I had a flight at 5:30 am [on Sunday], which was cancelled, and the replacement flight at 12:30 pm was also cancelled,” said Nilesh Rajadhyaksha, 39. IndiGo, which commands roughly 60% of India’s domestic market, cancelled 118 flights in Delhion the day.The continuing crisis has exposed the lack of choice for passengers in India’s aviation sector that is now largely a duopoly between IndiGo and Air India, with the embattled low-cost carrier being the only option in many sectors.On Sunday, IndiGo cancelled at least 112 flights at Mumbai airport, 76 in Kolkata, 61 in Hyderabad, 21 in Ahmedabad, and 14 in Patna, according to airport officials in these cities. The airline had cancelled a total of 850 flights on Saturday and 1,600 on Friday. In a statement, IndiGo said it operated 1,650 of its 2,300scheduled domestic and international flights on Sunday.The airline has told authorities that the operational meltdown stemmed from “misjudgment and planning gaps” in adapting to crew fatigue rules it had two years to prepare for. The rules were temporarily put on hold on Friday to mitigate the crisis, but the cascading failures have exposed the adverse impact of IndiGo’s low-cost strategies.The airline expects to stabilise its network by December 10, earlier than the previously projected December 10–15 timeline, with 137 of 138 destinations operational. In an internal video message to staff, CEO Pieter Elbers said the airline was recovering “step by step”.The aviation regulator DGCA on Saturday issued a show cause notice to Elbers, holding him directly accountable for “significant lapses in planning, oversight, and resource management” and giving him 24 hours to explain why enforcement action should not be initiated for violations that precipitated the country’s worst aviation crisis in years. IndiGo has requested DGCA time till 6pm on Monday to respond to the notice. The regulator granted it a one-time extension.On the ground, passengers continued to face hardships. “We’ve already checked out of our hotel, and now we have to arrange accommodation again while figuring out how to reschedule flights,” said a tourist visiting J&K, requesting anonymity. “It’s become very burdensome.”The tourism sector across several states has taken a hit, with the crisis slowing visitor inflow, industry stakeholders said. “People are worried that if this crisis continues, their bookings will go to waste, so new bookings have stopped, while earlier ones are getting cancelled. Facing this situation in the peak season means the entire industry will suffer a major blow,” Sanjay Kaushik, a Jaipur-based tour operator, said.Sajad Kralyari, a tour operator and secretary general of the Travel Agents Association of Kashmir (TAAK), echoed similar views. “The clients are thinking twice before going ahead with their itineraries. The businesses are facing a lot of loss,” he said.Beyond cancelled flights, passengers said the confusion also continued to extend to baggage handling, with dozens reporting missing or untraceable luggage. Inside the arrivals area at IGI, airport staff had lined up dozens of unclaimed suitcases, with passengers walking through to identify their bags. Outside the gates, small queues had formed as people were asked to wait their turn to enter and search for their luggage.“My Thursday flight to Chennai was cancelled, and I still haven’t been able to locate my checked-in luggage. It contains important documents and medicines. There has been no response from IndiGo’s staff, and I’m supposed to travel again tomorrow, which I can’t do without my bag,” said 42-year-old Dheeraj Chaudary.Meanwhile, the board of Interglobe Aviation, the parent company of IndiGo, has set up a Crisis Management Group (CMG), which is meeting regularly to monitor the situation, the airline said in a statement. The group, it said, consists of chairman Vikram Singh Mehta, board directors Gregg Saretsky and Mike Whitaker, and former Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, along with Elbers. “The Board of Directors is doing everything possible to take care of the challenges faced by our customers and to ensure refunds on cancellation and offer waivers on cancellation/rescheduling during the period of crisis,” the statement said.It added: “We are making very significant progress in restoring our flight schedules and strengthening our customer support systems.”(With inputs from Neha LM Tripathi in Delhi, Srinagar bureau and agencies)