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Indigo cancels over 200 flights due to crew shortage

NEW DELHI: Indigo airlines cancelled over 200 flights, and delayed countless others due to a crew shortage across airports in the country on Wednesday. This is the second consecutive day that Indigo is unable to operate a large number of flights. Sources said, the shortage is due to a massive recruitment drive by international airline Emirates at Delhi and Mumbai this week. However, Indigo attributed the significant disruption to multiple reasons including unforeseen operational challenges. Sources stated that there is a severe shortage of both cockpit and cabin crew. Flyers complained of these undesirable circumstances to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. 67 flights were cancelled at Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport alone. 13 flights departing from Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport were cancelled; over 70 flights from Mumbai and Bengaluru airports were cancelled till Wednesday evening. Furthermore, flights to Kolkata and Srinagar were also cancelled. Airline sources said that several Indigo crew have been making a beeline for Emirate's recruitment roadshow in Mumbai and Delhi the last two days. Aviation source said, The mismanagement on part of Indigo too is a major reason for the crisis they have been facing the last two days. The revised Flight Duty Time Limitations were implemented by all airlines from November 1. Why is Indigo alone facing an issue? It is because of poor management of the situation, nothing else. The new rostering rules included increased weekly rest for pilots, from 36 hours to 48 hours, and limiting night landings carried out by pilots to just two instead of six. Passengers rage Ashish K Singh posted about his delayed flight from Mumbai to Ahmedabad 6E 534 on X. Stranded for 1-2 hours. Passengers deserve better. This is not just a delay. Passengers are left struggling, including senior citizens and families. Another flyer Satish said, Indian Railways takes around eight hours from Tirupati to Hyderabad. The great Indigo takes five hours from Tirupati to Hyderabad. N Pradeep from Hyderabad posed, Indigo, experienced your gate changing circus and flight delays for over four hours with no responsible staff in Hyderabad SHUT DOWN your pathetic service. In a statement, Indigo said, We acknowledge that IndiGos operations have been significantly disrupted across the network for the past two days, and we sincerely apologize to our customers for the inconvenience caused. The airlines attributed the disruption to a multitude of unforeseen operational challenges including minor technology glitches, schedule changes linked to the winter season, adverse weather conditions, increased congestion in the aviation system and the implementation of updated crew rostering rules. To contain the disruption and restore stability, Indigo claimed to have initiated calibrated adjustments to their schedules. These measures will remain in place for the next 48 hours and will allow us to normalise our operations and progressively recover our punctuality across the network, it said.

3 Dec 2025 7:42 pm