India's aviation sector witnessed its most severe day of disruptions yet on Friday, as budget carrier IndiGo was forced to cancel the majority of its operations from key hubs, leaving thousands of passengers stranded in chaotic scenes at airports across the country.
Scale of the Cancellations: Delhi Grounded, Mumbai Crippled
The scale of the crisis became starkly clear when IndiGo cancelled all of its domestic flights operating to and from Delhi for the entire day. Simultaneously, operations at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport were severely impacted. Out of 396 IndiGo flights scheduled to depart from Mumbai, a staggering 258 flights were cancelled, accounting for roughly 65% of its operations from the city.
An aviation source confirmed the massive cancellation numbers. The ripple effect was felt across the airport's overall traffic. A senior air traffic control official revealed that the airport handled 802 airline flights in the 24-hour period from 5:30 AM Thursday to 5:30 AM Friday, a significant drop from the normal daily average of about 960 flights.
Passenger Agony and Airport Chaos
For the fourth consecutive day, terminals transformed into zones of frustration and despair. The flight information displays were lit up with red "cancelled" notifications or rescheduled timings. Check-in baggage from cancelled flights lay abandoned near conveyor belts in arrival areas.
With seating exhausted, passengers occupied every inch of available floor space—sitting, lying down, or simply standing in exhausted clusters. Tensions boiled over at IndiGo counters, where scores of angry flyers shouted at and abused ground staff. Passenger Nigum Lakhani, whose travel plans collapsed three times, lamented the scene. "It was terrible seeing the ground staff taking the abuses and insults that should have been aimed at the IndiGo top management responsible for this mess," he said.
Lakhani described a heartbreaking panorama: a woman wailing while trying to get a flight to her parent who suffered a heart attack, another passenger sitting hopelessly with an urn of ashes, and senior citizens and children in tears. "It was chaotic, noisy, tempers were flying. It was a terrible sight," he recounted, after spending 17 agonizing hours at the airport only to return home unsuccessful.
Operational Challenges and Travel Industry Fallout
Despite the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) offering exclusive exemptions and benefits to help IndiGo stabilize, sources indicate disruptions are expected to continue on Saturday, albeit less severe than Friday. An airline source stated it would take several days to clear the backlog of passengers from cancelled flights.
The sudden cancellation of all Delhi flights caught the travel industry off guard. A travel agent, requesting anonymity, expressed shock, noting Delhi is a crucial hub for connections to cities like Lucknow, Patna, Kolkata, and Chandigarh. "We had no inkling they would take Delhi off their schedule," the agent said, explaining they had already rerouted numerous passengers through Delhi.
While airfares for Saturday travel saw a slight dip compared to the preceding days, Friday presented a near-total lack of available tickets for same-day travel on non-stop flights, compounding the difficulties for stranded passengers seeking alternatives.
