IndiGo's passengers around India were put through considerable inconvenience on Thursday, with at least 250 flights being cancelled amid continuing operational chaos that started earlier in the week. Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Delhi airports bore the worst impact of these cancellations.
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City-wise impact
According to a report by The Hindustan Times, officials said 85 flights from Mumbai, 73 from Bengaluru, 68 from Hyderabad and 33 from Delhi were cancelled on Thursday. On Wednesday, as many as 67 flights were cancelled at Delhi airport, followed by 42 from Bengaluru, 40 from Hyderabad and 33 from Mumbai. There were several complaints from passengers about missing onward connections after the last-minute cancellations.
Reasons for the disruption
As per the report by The Hindustan Times, IndiGo, in a statement stated that attributed this to "calibrated adjustments" of its schedules with a view to normalising operations over the next 48 hours. “Our teams are working around the clock to ease customer discomfort and ensure operations stabilise as quickly as possible”, it said.
Its on-time performance (OTP) declined to 19.7% on Wednesday from 35% a day earlier, according to data from the civil aviation ministry.
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IndiGo has attributed to a variety of factors, such as technology glitches, adverse weather, increased congestion at airports, and the new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) that were implemented in July and November. The FDTL rules, aimed at ensuring rest for pilots and combating fatigue, restrict night landings and extend rest, thereby impacting crew scheduling.
The airlines' operations were also jolted by an urgent Airbus A320 software patch over November 29-30. This coincided with minimal slack arising from the new FDTL norms. According to DGCA, IndiGo alone had axed 1,232 flights in November, of which 755 were due to FDTL adjustments.
As per the report, IndiGo said affected passengers are being offered alternate travel arrangements or refunds. There was no fresh update from the airline on Thursday's operations. DGCA has summoned IndiGo to present the facts and plans to mitigate delays and cancellations.
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Operating more than 2,200-2,300 flights daily to more than 90 domestic and 45 international destinations, the airline had 416 aircraft, of which 366 were in active service as of December 2, as per the aircraft fleet tracking website Planespotter.net. The big nighttime operations of IndiGo are particularly affected by new FDTL rest requirements, adding to the continuing flight cancellations, Hindustan Times quoted Ameya Joshi, an aviation analyst, as saying.
