India’s Biggest Airline Falls Into Chaos, Canceling About 1,000 Flights

Gist

IndiGo, India's largest airline, caused widespread travel chaos by canceling around 1,000 flights due to crew shortages, stranding thousands of passengers and sparking public outrage.

LLM Summary

IndiGo canceled approximately 1,000 flights over several days, primarily due to a crew shortage, disrupting air travel across India. The cancellations, especially the complete halt of departures from New Delhi’s airport, left thousands stranded and prompted public anger, with passengers sharing distressing footage and expressing frustration over lost time and lack of alternatives.

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|India’s Biggest Airline Falls Into Chaos, Canceling About 1,000 Flights

Air traffic across India was thrown off course on Friday after IndiGo, the country’s dominant carrier, canceled hundreds of flights. Thousands of passengers were stranded at airports, unable to make their journeys and struggling to understand what was to blame.

Starting on Tuesday, IndiGo began canceling flights at an unusual rate, citing a lack of crew members. Then on Friday, at midday, it canceled every departure from New Delhi Airport, India’s busiest. About 235 flights were canceled, according to a spokesman for the airport’s owner, with hundreds more cut elsewhere. Industry watchers counted at least 1,000 flight cancellations by the end of the working week.

IndiGo has an undisputed position as India’s biggest airline. It operates around 2,300 flights a day, racking up about 118 million passenger arrivals last year.

On Friday, would-be passengers posted footage of crowds chanting “IndiGo! Shame, shame!” at airports. Mountains of unclaimed luggage were photographed around airports serving New Delhi and other big cities.

Aveen Balakrishnan, a business development manager, was waiting at Ahmedabad’s airport, in western India, for about 20 hours after his scheduled flight home to Bengaluru, in the south, was delayed. He said that he had thought about booking on a competitor, Akasa Air, but noted that doing so would have cost more than taking an international flight.

“Is there no value for our time?” he said in an interview. “Every hour I wait here is an hour of misery.”

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