Day 4 of IndiGo crisis rolls by, but no relief in sight

The hopes of fliers expecting IndiGo crisis to subside in a reasonable amount of time were cruelly shattered on Friday with the airline stating that the issue was not resolvable overnight and it was trying to ensure normalcy would be restored at the earliestA statement posted by the carrier on social media read ldquoToday December 5 should be the day with the highest number of cancellations as we are doing all that is necessary to reboot all our systems and schedules for progressive improvement starting tomorrowrdquoWhile the Mumbai airport is still reeling some normalcy has returned to its Pune counterpart where apart from the IndiGo issue other airlinesrsquo schedules havenrsquot been hit The Pune airport in a statement said ldquoPune Airport reports a steady return to normalcy for the period from 12 am to 5 pm on December 5 with all interruptions and flight disruptions now confined solely to IndiGo All other airlines adhered fully to their planned schedulesrdquoPassengers SpeakKarina Ostwal was finding it difficult to get a flight to Bangalore where she was to be engaged on Friday Ostwal had obtained a ticket for a 10 pm flight on Thursday but she told midday that the delay lasted till 230 pm on FridayldquoWe sat for so long at the airport because they kept saying that though the flight was ready they didnrsquot have pilots and crew We and a few passengers from a Mumbai to Chennai flight finally called the Mumbai Police who were able to persuade the crew to start the boarding processrdquoThough the flight took off at 233 pm Ostwalrsquos engagement had to be postponed not only because of the flights delay but also because her luggage was not yet with her ldquoMy engagement lehenga was in my suitcase and other than maybe 10 people on my flight no one got their bags at the airport After we approached IndiGo staffers for our luggage they made us fill out a form which lasted an hourrdquoLate for meetingChinmay Patil who booked his tickets well in advance was one of those who had been waiting for over 12 hours for their flight Catching a connecting flight from Delhi to Mumbai via Goa Patil said ldquoMy flight was scheduled to depart for Goa on December 3 I reached the airport early only to realise that my flight would be delayed by an hour which is normal and acceptable However later there was another day lasting almost four hoursrdquoReaching Goa Patil and his colleagues faced further delays and the flight which was supposed to take them to Mumbai did not take off till 930 am ldquoEven though we reached Mumbai by noon we couldnrsquot get off the flight immediately as there were no gates available for our plane to dock at Finally by 1230 pm we got off the flight It ended up feeling like we had crossed vast oceansrdquoPatil and his copassengers also complain that food vouchers which they were supposed to get due to the delay were not given to them till they started complaining which also took them a few hours to receiverdquoA screen shows delays and cancellations PicMadhulika Ram KavatturA test of patienceMaitreyee Kelkar travelling back to Mumbai from Bangalore was not in a hurry but a wait of over 14 hours tests anyonersquos patience ldquoThe airline at first didnrsquot warn us about any delays An hour before the scheduled departure we received a message saying our boarding had started so we ran to the gate but seeing us run the crew at the desk was confused which is when we got to know that our flight had been delayed till 1145 pmrdquo she saidAs the new departure time arrived the passengers were notified that the flight had been further delayed ldquoAt 7 am we finally boarded the flight After this we waited for three hours for the airline to sort out our baggage We finally reached around noonrdquo she addedThough she was one of the passengers who faced heavy delays she still feels empathetic towards the crew who were handling all the passengers She said ldquoIt is not their fault that all this happened and their patience is something that should be laudedrdquoLate for a friendrsquos weddingmidday on December 4 came across passengers flying out of the Pune airport who due to the cancellation of their flight missed their friendrsquos weddingPrasad Kulkarni Shubham Manmode Suhas Tamhane Rahul Pakhare and Shyamal Khairnar had reached Pune airport for their 930 pm PuneNagpur flight hoping to be with their colleague and close friend Akshay Zadpe for his wedding on Thursday morning Instead they spent over four hours in a jampacked terminal before the airline cancelled the flight close to midnightldquoWe had never seen such chaosrdquo said Kulkarni ldquoThe whole airport felt like a crowded fair There were aggressive flyers long queues and zero information Everyone was angry and helplessrdquoManmode said passengers were left confused even at the checkin counters ldquoDespite all the rescheduling chaos the queues just didnrsquot move Not a single staff member gave us any clarityrdquo he saidFor the group the emotional blow was missing their friendrsquos big day ldquoAkshay kept calling throughout the night asking whether we would make itrdquo said Tamhane ldquoHe was desperately waiting for us We couldnrsquot be there on one of the most important days of his liferdquoAlmost 20 to 25 flights finally followed their schedule among the 200 flights the airline operates to and from Mumbai according to midday sourcesDGCA steps inThe Directorate General of Civil Aviation has initiated a comprehensive review into the operational disruption of IndiGos operations Withdrawing the earlier instructions which prohibited interchanging leave and weekly rest the regulator said that this was to stabilise the airlines operations as it faced a severe crew shortage Noting that the airline failed to accurately forecast crew availability after repeated directions A fourmember committee appointed by DGCA will oversee the airlines manpower planning rostering and preparedness for implementing the revised Flight Duty Time LimitationsIndigo has now been granted a temporary exemption from the DGCA in regard to the restrictions on night duty and operations encroaching night duty for its A320 flights till February 10 2026