IndiGo flights cancellation: Over 470 flights cancelled across India today, petition seeks SC intervention -- Top points to know

Operational troubles persisted for IndiGo — India’s biggest airline — for a fourth day on Saturday, leading to the cancellation of over 470 flights. The disruption came on the heels of more than 1,000 grounded flights on Friday and over 550 on Thursday.

While operations in Delhi are gradually returning to normal, IndiGo flights continued to face disruptions at airports across the country on Saturday morning. 

IndiGo flight cancellations: Top developments so far

1. A total of 86 cancellations have been reported from the Delhi airport and 109 from the Mumbai airport. Over 120 flights were cancelled at the Bengaluru airport. 
2. IndiGo cancelled 69 flights at Hyderabad, 42 at Pune airport, 29 at Chennai airport, 7 at Lucknow airport, and 6 at Thiruvananthapuram airport. 
3. A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking the Chief Justice of India's intervention after passengers suffered losses due to flight suspensions.
4. The petitioner has urged the top court to take suo motu cognisance, direct the Civil Aviation Ministry and DGCA to submit status reports, and constitute a special bench for immediate hearing. 
5. The DGCA has attributed the flight cancellations and delays to IndiGo's "misjudgment and gap in planning" in implementing the new pilot roster rules. 
6. The government has ordered a high-level inquiry into disruptions and operational issues at IndiGo, news agency ANI reported.
7. The investigation will look into the causes of operational issues at the airline, identify accountability where necessary, and suggest measures to prevent such incidents in the future. 
8. Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu blamed the chaos to IndiGo's poor crew management and handling of the DGCA's new Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules. 
9. On Friday, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers said in a video message that normal operations are expected to resume between December 10 and 15. 
10. "December 5 was the most severely impacted day, with the number of cancellations well over 1000. I extend our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience it has caused to our customers. It will take some time to return to a full normal situation, which we anticipate between 10 to 15 December," Elbers said.