A system-wide outage at IndiGo, India’s largest airline, snarled operations across the country on Saturday, stranding thousands of passengers and causing hours-long delays with many major airports saddled with long queues.
The technical glitch started at 12:30pm and affected everything from online bookings to check-ins at airports nationwide. The company first acknowledged the glitch at 1:44pm, citing a “temporary system slowdown across our network”.
At 6:02pm, it reported that part of the network that handled airport operations was restored and added that “it may take a little time” to achieve full normalcy.
The carrier operates close to 2,000 flights on average and holds an estimated 60% market share in India’s domestic airline sector. According to flight tracking website Flight Aware, IndiGo accounted for the most number of flights delayed globally --- 889 of close to 9,900 running behind schedule on Saturday.
The slowdown unfolded in crowds of people having to wait at busy metropolitan airports of Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai, and in a flood of outrage on social media.
An official at the Delhi Airport, who asked not to be named, said during the full outage, check-ins had to be done manually for people – especially those who had to drop off baggage. “For those with check-in baggage and requiring a check-in at the counter, the process was delayed as each check-in had to be done manually,” said this person.
{{/usCountry}}An official at the Delhi Airport, who asked not to be named, said during the full outage, check-ins had to be done manually for people – especially those who had to drop off baggage. “For those with check-in baggage and requiring a check-in at the counter, the process was delayed as each check-in had to be done manually,” said this person.
{{/usCountry}}The company also acknowledged to customers on social media that its booking and web check-in services were down and the disruption continued at least till 9:45pm. “We are experiencing a temporary system slowdown impacting our website and booking services. Please try again after a short while, as we are working diligently to restore stability,” its X account replied to a post in which a person said they had been unable to book ticket with the carrier since morning.
An IndiGo representative did not respond to requests for comments on what caused the disruption and whether this was a network glitch or an intrusion.
Saturday’s disruptions were second only to the chaos that unfolded when a global Microsoft Windows outage on July 19 took down services worldwide. Then, IndiGo was the hardest hit and cancelled around 200 flights.
On Saturday, the company did not respond to requests for data on how many it cancelled.
The situation was likely exacerbated with festival season travel with Dussehra due to be celebrated next week.
Officials at airports said disruptions were in all services: website and online booking, web and counter check-in processes, issuance of boarding passes, baggage drop and flight operations and scheduling.
“Booked a last-minute flight coz I desperately needed to get home ASAP—only for the servers to crash and the flight to get delayed. So now, instead of zooming through the skies, I’m stuck in an airport purgatory where the only thing flying is my patience… out the window.#indigo,” said one user on X who tagged the airline.
Another flyer compared crowds at the airport to the scene at “railway station” during festive rush.
In its most recent quarterly results, for the three-month period ending in June, the company reported its first fall in profits in two years, hurt by higher operating costs that overshadowed largely unchanged fares.
The carrier, however, has been among the most profitable in a stressed sector. In the June quarter, it made a profit of $326 million.