IndiGo, India’s largest airline, announced on Friday that it will cancel around 500 flights within India, including all flights departing from New Delhi. The company cited a crisis worsening due to inadequate planning of pilot scheduling for the cancellations.
Passengers stranded at major airports across India expressed frustration and engaged in heated arguments with airline staff. However, there may be a glimmer of hope as authorities have temporarily exempted the country’s largest airline from implementing stricter pilot night duty regulations.
IndiGo, which holds a 60% market share in the Indian aviation market, anticipates full operation resumption by February 10th. The company has not specified when the daily mass flight cancellations will come to an end.
This marks the fourth day of large-scale flight cancellations by IndiGo, leaving thousands of passengers stranded nationwide and presenting the airline with its biggest challenge to date.
On Friday, Delhi airport announced the cancellation of all IndiGo flights for the day, with estimates suggesting that up to 235 flights may be affected.
Chennai, India’s third busiest airport, also declared that all IndiGo flights to other major city airports were canceled by 6 p.m. on Friday.
According to airport sources familiar with the situation, the flights canceled by IndiGo also included 104 flights from Mumbai, 102 from Bengaluru, and 92 from Hyderabad.
The company stated in a release that the flight disruptions were mainly due to “judgment errors and planning flaws” when implementing the new pilot duty rules, noting that other Indian airlines did not cancel flights due to the new regulations.
India introduced new pilot duty rules last year, effective from November 1st, which increased mandatory pilot rest hours from 36 to 48 per week. Additionally, pilots are now allowed to execute only two night landings per week, significantly lower than the previous six times.
On Thursday, IndiGo requested regulatory authorities to relax restrictions on pilot night duty hours.
On Friday, IndiGo’s stock price dropped nearly 3%, leading to a cumulative plunge of 10.3% for the week.
Indian government data revealed that IndiGo’s flight punctuality rate plummeted from 19.7% on Wednesday to 8.5% on Thursday. The airline canceled over 250 flights on Thursday and approximately 150 flights on Wednesday.
The main opposition party in India has called for parliamentary discussions on the issue.