Tears, missed rituals & lost journeys: IndiGo cancellations leave passengers helpless across India
IndiGo, India’s largest airline operating over 2,300 flights a day, found itself overwhelmed as new DGCA crew-duty rules sharply restricted pilot hours. With many pilots suddenly unavailable for rosters, the airline’s network buckled.
- Dec 5, 2025,
- Updated Dec 5, 2025 3:39 PM IST
At Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport, Namita clutched a small urn wrapped carefully in layers of cloth. Inside were her father’s asthi — the remains she needed to carry to Haridwar for the last rites in the Ganga. The ritual was scheduled for the next morning. The journey was supposed to be seamless: Bengaluru to Delhi, Delhi to Dehradun, then onward to Haridwar.
But IndiGo’s message was painfully brief: flight cancelled. No prior intimation. No alternative options.
“I have my father’s asthi with me... I have to reach Haridwar,” she told ANI, in a breaking voice. “They’re telling me to book another airline — ₹60,000 per person. How can I afford that? All our money is gone. Refund will take a week, and we don’t know how much will be deducted. I’m requesting the government to help. This cannot wait.”
For Namita, grief collided with chaos. For thousands of others across the country, the story was painfully similar.
At Jammu Airport, frustration brewed into helplessness. One passenger had watched his itinerary collapse, day after day. “My flight was first scheduled yesterday at 4:15 pm… then moved to 10:30 am today… now cancelled again,” he told ANI. “They’re just refunding the money. I booked two months in advance. I had connecting flights to Pune. All cancelled.”
He looked exhausted — the kind of exhaustion that comes from standing in the same line multiple times, only to walk away with fewer answers each time. “They should have made alternate arrangements, but they haven’t.”
At Bagdogra Airport in Siliguri, two Israeli travellers sat surrounded by confused families and empty snack wrappers on the floor. They had five days in India — short, beautiful, and tightly planned. Now they needed to get back to Kolkata to ensure they didn’t miss their international flight home.
“I don’t know why they cancelled,” one of them told ANI. “Our flight back to Israel is four hours later. We need to be in Kolkata… I don’t know how to get there. I’m not from here.”
In a foreign country, uncertainty feels twice as heavy. “We want a new flight and our money back,” she repeated.
At Bhubaneswar Airport, a young traveller was trying desperately to salvage an international trip to Vietnam. “The distance to Bengaluru is 25-26 hours by road… impossible. And there is just one staff member here. No clarity. No solutions,” he said.
“I reached here yesterday to check,” he explained. “They had flights to Bengaluru yesterday — but didn’t give me even one seat.”
Among the thousands stranded was Singapore’s High Commissioner to India, Simon Wong, who posted on X (formally twitter) about the disruption. “My flight to Deoghar has been cancelled,” he wrote. “My sincere apologies to my young staff waiting for me to attend his shaadi. Lost for words.”
Cascade behind the crisis
IndiGo, India’s largest airline operating over 2,300 flights a day, found itself overwhelmed as new DGCA crew-duty rules sharply restricted pilot hours. With many pilots suddenly unavailable for rosters, the airline’s network buckled.
On Friday alone:
- 700+ flights cancelled,
- all domestic departures from Delhi grounded until midnight, and
- On-Time Performance dropped below 20%.
Passengers claimed last-minute fares on key routes like Delhi-Mumbai shot up to ₹60,000 — a price point that turned urgent travel into a privilege few could afford.
To stabilise operations, DGCA eventually rolled back a key clause in the new rostering rules, allowing airlines more flexibility. But for thousands stranded at airports, the relief came too late.
Across terminals — from Jammu to Siliguri, from Bengaluru to Bhubaneswar — people sat among suitcases and phone chargers, trying to rearrange lives derailed by sudden cancellations.
Some stories carried grief. Some carried urgency. Some carried fear of missing weddings, funerals, international connections, or last chances. In every story, one theme repeated itself: no communication, no clarity, no alternatives.
At Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport, Namita clutched a small urn wrapped carefully in layers of cloth. Inside were her father’s asthi — the remains she needed to carry to Haridwar for the last rites in the Ganga. The ritual was scheduled for the next morning. The journey was supposed to be seamless: Bengaluru to Delhi, Delhi to Dehradun, then onward to Haridwar.
But IndiGo’s message was painfully brief: flight cancelled. No prior intimation. No alternative options.
“I have my father’s asthi with me... I have to reach Haridwar,” she told ANI, in a breaking voice. “They’re telling me to book another airline — ₹60,000 per person. How can I afford that? All our money is gone. Refund will take a week, and we don’t know how much will be deducted. I’m requesting the government to help. This cannot wait.”
For Namita, grief collided with chaos. For thousands of others across the country, the story was painfully similar.
At Jammu Airport, frustration brewed into helplessness. One passenger had watched his itinerary collapse, day after day. “My flight was first scheduled yesterday at 4:15 pm… then moved to 10:30 am today… now cancelled again,” he told ANI. “They’re just refunding the money. I booked two months in advance. I had connecting flights to Pune. All cancelled.”
He looked exhausted — the kind of exhaustion that comes from standing in the same line multiple times, only to walk away with fewer answers each time. “They should have made alternate arrangements, but they haven’t.”
At Bagdogra Airport in Siliguri, two Israeli travellers sat surrounded by confused families and empty snack wrappers on the floor. They had five days in India — short, beautiful, and tightly planned. Now they needed to get back to Kolkata to ensure they didn’t miss their international flight home.
“I don’t know why they cancelled,” one of them told ANI. “Our flight back to Israel is four hours later. We need to be in Kolkata… I don’t know how to get there. I’m not from here.”
In a foreign country, uncertainty feels twice as heavy. “We want a new flight and our money back,” she repeated.
At Bhubaneswar Airport, a young traveller was trying desperately to salvage an international trip to Vietnam. “The distance to Bengaluru is 25-26 hours by road… impossible. And there is just one staff member here. No clarity. No solutions,” he said.
“I reached here yesterday to check,” he explained. “They had flights to Bengaluru yesterday — but didn’t give me even one seat.”
Among the thousands stranded was Singapore’s High Commissioner to India, Simon Wong, who posted on X (formally twitter) about the disruption. “My flight to Deoghar has been cancelled,” he wrote. “My sincere apologies to my young staff waiting for me to attend his shaadi. Lost for words.”
Cascade behind the crisis
IndiGo, India’s largest airline operating over 2,300 flights a day, found itself overwhelmed as new DGCA crew-duty rules sharply restricted pilot hours. With many pilots suddenly unavailable for rosters, the airline’s network buckled.
On Friday alone:
- 700+ flights cancelled,
- all domestic departures from Delhi grounded until midnight, and
- On-Time Performance dropped below 20%.
Passengers claimed last-minute fares on key routes like Delhi-Mumbai shot up to ₹60,000 — a price point that turned urgent travel into a privilege few could afford.
To stabilise operations, DGCA eventually rolled back a key clause in the new rostering rules, allowing airlines more flexibility. But for thousands stranded at airports, the relief came too late.
Across terminals — from Jammu to Siliguri, from Bengaluru to Bhubaneswar — people sat among suitcases and phone chargers, trying to rearrange lives derailed by sudden cancellations.
Some stories carried grief. Some carried urgency. Some carried fear of missing weddings, funerals, international connections, or last chances. In every story, one theme repeated itself: no communication, no clarity, no alternatives.