India's travel chaos intensifies as IndiGo cancels hundreds of flights
The travel chaos in India has reached a critical point, with the country's largest airline, IndiGo, canceling hundreds of flights on Friday, following three days of widespread disruption across its network. This crisis has left thousands of passengers stranded across the country, particularly in the capital, Delhi, during a busy travel season.
The airline's struggles stem from a pilot shortage, which has been exacerbated by its failure to adapt to new crew rostering rules. IndiGo, holding a 60% market share and operating over 2,000 flights daily, has been under scrutiny for its handling of the situation. The government has expressed clear dissatisfaction, and the federal aviation minister has called for a detailed plan to address the issues.
The aviation regulator has directed IndiGo to submit an immediate plan covering crew recruitment, training, roster restructuring, safety-risk assessments, and other mitigation measures. This comes as a response to the disruptions caused by 'misjudgment and planning gaps' in implementing the new flight duty time limitation rules.
However, the airline's situation has drawn sharp criticism from the Airline Pilots Association of India, which argues that any relief granted to IndiGo on duty timings undermines the new regulations and compromises the safety of the flying public. The new rules mandate more rest for pilots, including a reduction in night-time landings from six to two per week.
Social media has been abuzz with angry passengers expressing frustration over lack of timely information and their prolonged stay at the airport without food. The situation has even affected the personal lives of some, like Singapore's High Commissioner to India, Simon Wong, who missed a wedding due to being stranded at the airport.
Major airports in Delhi, Mumbai, and other cities have issued advisories, urging passengers to check flight statuses before arriving at the airport to avoid further inconvenience.
