IndiGo expects its flight cancellations to fall below 1,000 on Saturday, the fifth day of travel chaos that hit India's largest airline and left thousands of frustrated passengers stranded at airports across the country.
Operations are expected to return to normal by next week, IndiGo's chief executive Pieter Elbers said in a video message.
"Given the size, scale and complexity of our operation, it will take some time to return to a full, normal situation, which we do anticipate between the 10th and 15th of December," Mr Elbers said.
The disruption comes after the airline cancelled more than 1,000 flights across India on Friday “to align crew and planes".
IndiGo has acknowledged it did not plan properly, in the lead up to a November 1 deadline to implement stricter rules on night flying and weekly rest for pilots, ultimately leading to scheduling problems this week.
Friday marked the highest number of cancellations so far during the airline's operational crisis, hitting more than half of the 2,200 daily flights that the airline normally operates.
IndiGo has rebooted its systems and flight schedules, which resulted in these record cancellations, but this is "imperative for progressive improvements" starting from Saturday, Mr Elbers said.
Later on Saturday afternoon, IndiGo said that the number of cancellations dropped below 850 flights, much lower compared to yesterday.
"We’re continuing to work towards reducing this number progressively over the next few days," it said in a statement.
Price caps on tickets
India's Civil Aviation Ministry said on Saturday a directive had been issued to all airlines, mandating strict adherence to all fare caps that have been prescribed, to protect passengers from opportunistic pricing.
The price caps will remain in force until India's flight situation fully stabilises, the ministry said in a statement.
"The Ministry will continue to closely monitor fare levels through real-time data and active coordination with airlines," the government said.
Travel mayhem
Air travel disruption gripped India this week when IndiGo cancelled thousands of flights, as it struggles to adapt to the strict new safety rules rolled out by the country's aviation authorities.
India's Civil Aviation Ministry announced special relief for the airline from these rules, following the upheaval.
The Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) ordered by the civil aviation regulator "have been placed in abeyance with immediate effect," the ministry said.
"Without compromising on air safety, this decision has been taken solely in the interest of passengers, especially senior citizens, students, patients, and others who rely on timely air travel for essential needs."
The ministry expects that flight schedules will begin to stabilise and return to normal by Saturday and anticipates that complete restoration of services will be achieved within the next three days, it said on Friday.
The FDTL implementation relief is "of great help" the IndiGo boss said. "We do expect to further improve every day."
The crisis is one of the biggest in IndiGo's 20-year history, particularly as the airline prides itself on punctuality and has attracted millions passengers with its low-cost fares.
Customer trust
The airline will require extensive time and effort to revive customers' confidence as the crisis has hit its reputation of arriving on time, Mark Martin, chief executive of aviation advisory Martin Consulting, told The National.
"This damages IndiGo most, and the traveller is not stupid," he said. "With the regulator bending backwards, it sends a message to the world that India is compromising on safety."
The Indian government has decided to open a "high-level inquiry" into the travel disruption, according to the ministry.
"The inquiry will examine what went wrong at IndiGo, determine accountability wherever required for appropriate actions, and recommend measures to prevent similar disruptions in the future, ensuring that passengers do not face such hardships again," it said.
The pilot-fatigue rules have been years in the making. In January 2024, India’s civil aviation regulator announced revised FDTL rules to curb pilot fatigue.
This includes an increase in weekly rest from 36 hours to 48 hours, stricter caps on cumulative flying hours and limiting night-time landing to two per week from six per week.
India's civil aviation regulator has implemented a phased approach of these rules. The first phase began in July this year, with the second phase commencing on November 1st.
"What has appeared obvious during the past couple of days is that IndiGo, despite nearly two years’ notice, has not succeeded in a smooth transition to abide by these new rules," Flight Radar said in a post on X.
"Instead, the operational collapse has been swift and severe."
Thousands of stranded passengers have taken to social media to air their frustrations on various platforms, with some angry customers threatening to sue the airline.
Reena Bhatia, a 70-year old resident of Dubai, said she was stranded in Mumbai airport for about 16 hours after her Indigo flight to the emirate on the morning of December 4th was delayed until the next day.
Ms Bhatia spent a sleepless night at the airport lounge, checking frequently with the staff for updates on her Dubai flight, but said she was fortunate to have access to food and comfortable seating. Outside, chaotic scenes unfolded.
"People outside the lounge were in pathetic condition," Ms Bhatia told The National, describing scenes of elderly women sitting on the floor, screaming babies and passengers demanding vouchers for food and access to the hotel airport for the night.
"The lounge was quiet and peaceful but people outside were in bad shape," she said.
IndiGo hit the hardest
Indigo was hit harder than other Indian airlines.
"A fairly confident explanation could be a mixture of some airlines simply operating smaller fleets with a less dense schedule, while the obvious elephant in the room is the availability of crew. Airlines with a better 'crew-to-aircraft' ratio simply have better chances of rostering according to the new rules," Flight Radar said.
"Or to put it bluntly: more available crew makes life easier for crew planners, who we imagine presently are involved in quite a stressful session of scheduling whack-a-mole."
