IndiGo. India’s biggest airline. Their whole brand was punctuality. And now? It’s facing one of the most severe breakdowns in recent memory. The on-time performance (OTP) data from Tuesday is brutal—it plunged to just 35 per cent. That happened. And then the operational chaos followed.
The turbulence is everywhere. Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad. Collectively, almost 200 cancellations were reported by Wednesday afternoon. Widespread disruption, man. Total chaos for domestic travellers.
The Crew Shortage: Where the Real Problem Started
The core issue is a sharp crew shortage. Specifically pilots.
This happened because of the new Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms. They came in last month. They mandate more rest, humane rosters—you know, basic safety stuff. IndiGo has a massive network. They have to realign it. But they couldn’t.
Sources are telling us flights had to be grounded because no cabin crew was available. None. Others were delayed up to eight hours. When IndiGo—which has over of the market—stalls, the whole system freezes.
The FDTL rules are tight. Flying capped at eight hours a day. Mandatory rest periods—twice the flight duration. The DGCA brought this in to ensure safety, to stop fatigue. IndiGo just wasn’t ready to staff up to meet it.
The Airline’s Defense and the Passenger Rage
IndiGo put out a statement. They “sincerely apologise.” They blamed a compounding impact from a “multitude of unforeseen operational challenges”: minor tech glitches, winter schedule, weather, congestion, and those new FDTL rules. They never anticipated it, apparently.
They’ve initiated “calibrated adjustments” to the schedule for the next 48 hours. That’s how they plan to normalize operations. They have to recover that punctuality, or nothing.
Meanwhile, the ground reality? Brutal.
Hyderabad: Early morning scenes were long queues. 33 IndiGo flights cancelled there alone. Arrivals from places like Delhi, Goa, Chennai—all gone.
Bengaluru: 42 domestic flights cancelled. 22 arrivals, 20 departures.
Passengers are venting online. One traveller in Hyderabad was stranded since 3 a.m. and missed an important meeting. Another waited through multiple delays: , then , then . They were told three minutes before boarding. That’s rough.
To top it all off, there was a slowdown in the Amadeus system at Delhi Airport, the check-in and reservation software. That just added weight to the already struggling operations.
They are offering alternate travel or refunds. But the damage is done. The question is how fast they can plug that crew hole, and if their OTP can ever fully recover. It’s an ongoing, massive logistics struggle.
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