IndiGo cancels 300 flights due to staff shortage, passengers faint while waiting

Due to new safety regulations in the aviation sector, India's largest airline, IndiGo, is facing a crew shortage for the third consecutive day. This has severely impacted IndiGo's operations. According to news agency PTI, more than 300 IndiGo flights were canceled on Thursday at over 10 airports, including Delhi and Mumbai.

A passenger at Pune airport reported waiting for more than eight hours. Both floors of the airport were crowded with passengers, and three passengers even fainted. The airline was not sending any messages regarding the flight cancellations.

At Delhi airport today, a total of 95 IndiGo flights were canceled. These included 48 domestic and international flights departing from Delhi and 47 arriving flights. Similarly, 86 flights were canceled in Mumbai, 50 in Bengaluru, 70 in Hyderabad, 4 in Jaipur, and 3 in Indore.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has changed the safety regulations related to the working hours of pilots and other crew members for all airlines, effective November 1st. This has had the biggest impact on IndiGo. On Thursday, IndiGo officials met with the DGCA to discuss the matter.

IndiGo has the most planes, hence the biggest impact

The airline operates approximately 2,300 domestic and international flights daily. This number is almost double the number of flights operated by Air India in a day. On such a large scale, even if 10-20 percent of flights are delayed or canceled, it means 200-400 flights are affected, causing major difficulties for thousands of passengers. On Wednesday, more than 200 IndiGo flights were also affected.

Now, understand the new DGCA rules

The DGCA has changed the rules related to the working hours of pilots and other crew members, effective November 1st. This is called Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL). These rules have been implemented in two phases. The first phase was implemented on July 1st.

The second phase came into effect on November 1st. The new rules emphasize providing adequate rest to pilots and crew to enhance passenger safety. This has resulted in a sudden shortage of pilots and crew members for airline companies. The DGCA stated that a total of 1,232 IndiGo flights were canceled in November, including 755 due to the new Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules.

IndiGo says the situation will normalize by December 5th

The airline issued a statement on Wednesday, saying that minor technical glitches, schedule changes due to winter, bad weather, slow network in the aviation system, and the new rules related to crew members' shift charts (Flight Duty Time Limitation) have adversely affected operations. This was not possible to anticipate beforehand. The situation will normalize by December 5th.

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IndiGo officials met with the DGCA

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had asked IndiGo on Wednesday for details of the reasons for the current problems and the plan to address them. The DGCA said it is investigating the matter and assessing ways to reduce flight cancellations and delays. Airline officials met with the DGCA on Thursday.

According to the DGCA, the shortage of crew is the main reason. This problem has been ongoing at IndiGo since last month. 1232 of its flights were canceled in November. On Tuesday, 1400 flights were delayed.