Peak travel season: Will IndiGo's cancellations hurt tourism?

IndiGo flight cancellations: IndiGo passengers at Delhi Airport faced frustration as over 1000 flights were cancelled, with no clear alternative or support from the airline.

Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad were the worst-affected cities on Friday, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded and throwing travel plans into disarray. The airline cancelled all the 235 flights in Delhi

Delhi airport announced all IndiGo departures for the day -- around 235 flights -- were cancelled. Chennai airport similarly halted all departures to major metro destinations until 6 pm. IndiGo cancelled 104 flights in Mumbai, 102 in Bengaluru, and 92 in Hyderabad

Passengers were waiting anxiously at Goa’s Dabolim Airport, where 31 IndiGo flights were cancelled amid severe disruptions. The cancelled flights were scheduled to depart for multiple destinations, including Bengaluru, Surat, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Delhi, Indore, Mumbai and Bhopal

Chaos outside Goa’s Dabolim Airport: Outside Dabolim Airport, stranded passengers attempted to arrange alternative transport after their IndiGo flights were abruptly cancelled.

Goa tourism stakeholders expressed concern: Jack Sukhija, president of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa, said IndiGo enjoys more than 60 per cent share in the Indian aviation market and disruptions in its flight operations will have an adverse impact on the tourism industry. 

Sukhija said the huge disruptions will definitely have an impact on the tourism industry, a key revenue earner for Goa. “The fact remains that people who want to fly out will still have to stay in. So, it’s not a very positive sign, but sooner the situation stabilises, the better it will be. But for next 2-3 days, there will be definitely an impact.” Sukhija opined.

IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers explained that the massive disruption was caused by the rebooting of IndiGo’s entire operational system. He urged passengers not to visit airports for cancelled flights to avoid further inconvenience.

“We have experienced severe operational disruptions for the past few days. Since then, the crisis continues to aggravate, with today, December 5th, being the most severely impacted day with the number of cancellations well over a thousand or more than half of our number of daily flights,” Elbers said in a video message on Friday