New Delhi: For three days now, 29-year-old Supriya Singh has been criss-crossing Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport’s Terminal 1 with her one-year-old daughter in her arms, caught in the swirl of IndiGo’s spiralling flight disruptions.
Singh, travelling from Varanasi, had a connecting flight from Delhi to Surat on Wednesday. “Since then, I have been wandering around the airport trying to figure out how to get home, tracking down my luggage — which is still missing — and taking care of my daughter. Her health is being affected as she is not getting proper food, milk or water here,” she said.
Singh, with her crying daughter in her arms, scrambled through the many anxious passengers gathered to demand rescheduled flights, updates on missing baggage and refunds on Sunday morning, as Delhi airport saw 37 departure and 49 arrival flights cancelled.
Thousands of such harried passengers were left wandering around the airport for updates as a result of the inability of India’s largest airline to meet new crew rostering norms.
“We were on a holiday in Georgia and were supposed to leave on a connecting flight to Bangalore, where we live, at 10:30 this morning. Three hours before the flight, we got the information that it had been cancelled, with no other details or alternative solution. We’re being told that there’s no flight before Monday, which will be a big problem for my wife as she does not have any leave and will face salary cuts,” Saikat Chandra (34), one of the passengers waiting at the counter, said.
{{/usCountry}}“We were on a holiday in Georgia and were supposed to leave on a connecting flight to Bangalore, where we live, at 10:30 this morning. Three hours before the flight, we got the information that it had been cancelled, with no other details or alternative solution. We’re being told that there’s no flight before Monday, which will be a big problem for my wife as she does not have any leave and will face salary cuts,” Saikat Chandra (34), one of the passengers waiting at the counter, said.
{{/usCountry}}Nanda Kumar, a 45-year-old father, wanted to make it back home to Chennai in time for his daughter’s fourth birthday on Sunday. “I had a 5:30 flight to Chennai yesterday, but it was cancelled. I had come here with two of my employees for an event, so I needed to arrange flights for them first. IndiGo did not give us any rescheduled flight or accommodation, creating further expenditure for us. I had heard about the delays but was hoping everything had been fixed. I wanted to be back by tonight so that I could be with my daughter on her birthday, but there’s nothing we can do now,” he said.
“My flight to Hyderabad was 5:30 am yesterday but not only did my flight get cancelled, I have not returned the luggage which I checked in. I have been wandering around the airport in the same clothes since yesterday, I’ve had to purchase a new charger for my phone, and I’ve missed multiple office meetings. I’ve got a flight for the day after tomorrow now, which is very late but I cannot do anything else. But if the delays have been going on for multiple days, why did the airline check in the luggage in the first place? It cannot be that they found out about the cancellation only when the flight was going to depart,” said Ashwini Singhal (52), who had been waiting in front of the counter for hours.
Arjun Kumar (26), who was struggling in the crowd with two big suitcases, said, “I brought gifts from Dubai for my family in Lucknow. I had a connecting flight from Delhi this morning, but it got cancelled. Now I’m being told to go from one place to another in the airport and have to drag the suitcases with me, which is very difficult and tiring. I’ve been here the entire morning and haven’t been able to eat, rest or even go to the bathroom.”
IndiGo cancelled 1,000 flights on Friday, triggering chaos at airports across the country and leaving thousands of passengers stranded. The airline, which commands 60% of India’s domestic market, has now cancelled approximately 1,600 flights since Tuesday, when the crisis erupted into public view.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Friday exempted Indigo’s Airbus A320 fleet from certain rules on pilot duty hours at night, after a representation from the airline a day earlier. It also allowed Indigo to call back pilots deputed elsewhere for flying duties. Separately, it withdrew a rule that prevented airlines from counting pilot leave as weekly rest to meet flying duty norms.
While the chaos peaked this week, the storm was building up through November, when the airline cancelled , on average, over 25 flights a day on account of its inability to meet the new norms.