New Delhi: Air travel remained disrupted as the cancellations of IndiGo flights continued on the fifth day on Saturday. Thousands of passengers have been left stranded at several major airports across the country. According to reports, on Saturday, around 400 flights have been cancelled so far.
As per the latest data, over 200 flights have been cancelled at Mumbai and Delhi airports. On Friday, the airline's CEO Pieter Elbers said the situation is anticipated to normalise between December 10–15.
List Of IndiGo Flights Cancelled At Major Airports:
Mumbai: 109 (Arrivals: 51, Departures: 58)
Delhi: 106 (54 departures and 52 arrivals)
Hyderabad: 69 (Arrivals: 26, Departures: 43)
Pune: 42 (14 arrivals and 28 departures)
Bengaluru: 50
Long queues of passengers have been witnessed at IndiGo customer care counters at Kolkata's Netaji Subhash Chandra Airport amid cancellation of flights.
"We had a flight to Lucknow via Patna. But it stands cancelled now. They have now assigned us a flight to Delhi scheduled for tonight 8.45 pm. But they are also saying that there is no certainty where it would fly out... We had not received any information beforehand regarding the cancellation of the flight. They told us to either get a refund or reschedule the flight," a passenger told ANI.
What IndiGo CEO Had Said:
Elbers, in a video message, apologised for the major inconvenience caused to the passengers due to the disruptions. "Regrettably, earlier measures of the last few days have proven not to be enough. So we decided today for a reboot of all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest number of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting tomorrow onwards," he said.
"With these actions, we expect tomorrow to have cancellations below 1,000. The support of DGCA, in providing specific FDTL implementation relief, is of great help," Elbers added.
On Friday, around 1,000 flights were cancelled by IndiGo across several major airports across the country. The airline had also cancelled all operations till midnight from the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.
Civil Aviation Minister's Statement:
Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu held IndiGo's mismanagement regarding its crew, with respect to the new flight duty time limitation (FDTL) regulations issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), responsible for the disruption of its operations.
DGCA also withdrew pilot duty rules after IndiGo’s operational crisis continued to disrupt air travel in the country for the fourth day on Friday. A four-member panel was also constituted by the aviation regulator to probe the circumstances which led to disruption of operations.
