Delhi Airport Indigo Flight Cancellation: The flight conditions of the country’s largest airline Indigo remained very bad on Tuesday and Wednesday. Such chaos was seen in Indigo flights due to which lakhs of passengers had to face problems. On Tuesday, the airline’s on-time punctuality rate (OTP) fell to just 35%. This means that out of more than 2,200 daily flights, about 1,400 flights were delayed. The situation worsened so much on Wednesday that more than 200 flights had to be canceled at major airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The company has issued a statement and clarified on this situation.
Why did this happen?
In the initial statement issued by IndiGo, several reasons were given for the delay. In the statement, weather, crowd, technical problems and increased congestion in winter were held responsible. But the real reason was much bigger than that. There was a severe crew shortage, caused by the newly implemented FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitation) rules.
38 Indigo flights were canceled at Delhi Airport. (file photo)
What is FDTL and why did it lead to crisis?
DGCA has implemented rules to provide better rest to the crew to prevent fatigue. According to this-
- 8 hours a day,
- 35 hours a week,
- 125 hours a month,
- 1,000 hours a year,
No more than 10 hours of mandatory rest can be flown in every 24 hours.
IndiGo said that it was difficult for such a large network of 2,200+ flights to adjust to these new rules overnight. Due to this the availability of crew reduced.
How did the situation worsen?
1. Direct impact on thousands of passengers
The delay in flights reached up to 8 hours at many places. Many flights were canceled at the last moment.
2. Crew management badly affected
Due to the new rostering, pilots and cabin crew were not available for dozens of flights, due to which the planes remained grounded.
3. System slowdown increased the problem
The Amadeus system used for check-in and boarding in Delhi started slowing down. This slowed down the process further.
4. Ripple Effect
Experts say that the effect of such a huge delay does not last just for a day. This affects the entire network for the next 24-48 hours.
IndiGo’s share in domestic air travel in India is more than 60%.
What happened – how was the situation at the airport?
Delhi Airport:
- 38 flights canceled since 12 midnight
- Long queues, slow check-in
- huge resentment among passengers
Hyderabad Airport:
- crowd since morning
- 33 flights canceled
- Many passengers complained about missing meetings and connecting flights.
Bengaluru Airport:
Total 42 flights cancelled, 22 arrivals, 20 departures.
Services coming from many cities disrupted.
IndiGo said that it was difficult for such a large network of 2,200+ flights to adjust to these new rules overnight.
What did the company say?
Indigo said-
We acknowledge that there have been major operational disruptions on our network over the past two days. This has been affected due to technical difficulties, winter schedule, increased congestion and new crew rostering rules. The airline further said that the system will be brought back to normal by making calibrated adjustments in the next 48 hours.
What will the passengers get?
Indigo said that-
- Second flight for affected passengers.
- Or full refund.
- And it is advised to check the flight status before going to the airport.
Official link to check flight status
www.goindigo.in/check-flight-status.html
Why is this crisis so big?
IndiGo’s share in domestic air travel in India is more than 60%. When 200 flights of such a big airline are affected, it affects all other airlines, airports and passengers as well. Experts say this is like a stress test for India’s aviation industry. In this, the shortcomings of staffing, technology and rostering system came to light simultaneously.
