Mumbai: IndiGo has cancelled over 70 flights, including those from Bengaluru and Mumbai airports, on Wednesday, mainly due to crew shortages, sources said.
Scores of IndiGo flights were delayed at various airports, as the carrier struggled to get the crew for operating its flights, sources said.
IndiGo said there have been cancellations and delays.
“We have had several unavoidable flight delays and some cancellations in the past few days due to various reasons, including technology issues, airport congestion, and operational requirements,” the airline spokesperson said in a statement.
“IndiGo has been facing acute crew shortage since the implementation of the second phase of the FDTL norms, leading to cancellations and huge delays in its operations across the airports,” a source told PTI.
“The situation turned bad on Tuesday for the airline and the shortage turned worse on Wednesday with scores of flights cancelled and delayed from across airports in the country,” the source said.
IndiGo’s on-time performance from six key domestic airports plummeted to 35 percent on Tuesday. In contrast, Air India clocked 67.2 percent, Air India Express 79.5 percent, SpiceJet 82.50 percent and Akasa Air 73.20 percent, according to the Civil Aviation Ministry website.
The latest flight duty time limitation norms, which entail increased weekly rest periods to 48 hours, the extension of night hours, and limiting the number of night landings to only two, as opposed to six earlier, were initially opposed by domestic airlines, including IndiGo and Tata Group-owned Air India.
But they were subsequently rolled out by the DGCA following the Delhi High Court’s directives, albeit after a delay of over one year and in a phased manner and with certain variations to airlines like IndiGo and Air India.
While the first phase of these FDTL norms came into force from July, the second phase, which restricted the night landing to two from six earlier, was implemented from November 1.
The norms were originally to be put in place from March 2024, but airlines, including IndiGo, sought a step-by-step implementation, citing additional crew requirements.
The Gurugram-based airline currently operates around 2,100 domestic and international flights, and a significant chunk of them at night.
As of December 2, IndiGo had a total of 416 planes in the fleet, with 366 of them in operations and 50 on ground, up from 47 last month, as per the aircraft fleet tracking website Planespotter.com.
