India’s busiest airports continued to feel the heat on Friday as IndiGo’s operational disruptions widened, prompting a string of cancellations across major metros. According to reports, the country’s largest private airline cancelled over 500 flights today. Around 550 IndiGo Airlines flights were cancelled on Thursday as well.
The Delhi airport operator, DIAL, today announced that IndiGo has cancelled all departing domestic flights from the airport till midnight. However, operations for all other carriers remain as per schedule, it added.
IndiGo has, meanwhile, cancelled all departing flights from the Chennai Airport till 6 PM today.
Bengaluru reported 52 cancelled arrivals and 50 cancelled departures at Kempegowda International Airport, with officials saying the next update will be issued after 6 pm.
Hyderabad also reported a significant impact, with 43 IndiGo arrivals and 49 departures cancelled as of Thursday, according to GMR Airports Ltd PRO. Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) said the carrier has planned 104 cancellations for December 5 (53 departures and 51 arrivals), and more updates will follow if the numbers change.
Earlier in the day, Pune airport confirmed 32 cancellations between midnight and 8 am, including a Nagpur–Pune flight diverted to Hyderabad. In Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram International Airport reported a fresh strain, with IndiGo cancelling two arrivals and two departures and delaying three inbound and three outbound services.
The fresh disruptions came even as the airline continued to battle a wave of cancellations nationwide.
The strain on India’s largest carrier has been building for days. By Wednesday evening, IndiGo told the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that it had cancelled 1,232 flights in November, with crew shortages emerging as the single biggest trigger. As many as 755 services were scrapped because staff could not be rostered without breaching the Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) rules.
IndiGo admits service lapses
The IndiGo CEO yesterday acknowledged service lapses, stating the airline was going through severe operational turbulence. CEO Pieter Elbers said the airline’s immediate priority was to stabilise services and restore punctuality. He, however, admitted that achieving the same was “not an easy target”.
Elbers told employees in an internal message that IndiGo has fallen short of delivering a satisfactory travel experience in recent days.
“These past few days have been difficult for many of IndiGo’s customers and colleagues. We serve close to 380,000 customers a day and want each of them to have a good experience. We could not live up to that promise these past days, and we have publicly apologised for that.”
According to the CEO, the crisis was triggered by several factors, including operational challenges that escalated simultaneously — minor tech issues, schedule adjustments, adverse weather, increased congestion across the aviation ecosystem, and the rollout of the new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms.
The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), after holding a detailed review meeting with IndiGo, said in a statement that the private airline has sought a temporary operational exemption from certain FDTL provisions for its A320 fleet until February 10, 2026, adding that operational stability is expected to be restored by that date.
“To reduce passenger inconvenience while maintaining safety margins, IndiGo has requested operational variations or exemptions from specific FDTL provisions for A320 operations up to February 10, 2026. IndiGo has assured DGCA that corrective actions are underway and that normalised and stable operations will be fully restored by February 10, 2026,” the aviation regulator stated.