IndiGo flight chaos: 2.6 lakh flyers hit at Mumbai airport; 905 cancellations, 1,475 delays from December 1 to 8

MUMBAI: More than 2.6 lakh passengers were directly affected at Mumbai airport last week as IndiGo's operations went into sustained disruption, with 905 cancellations and 1,475 delays of over 30 minutes recorded between Dec 1 and 8, according to the ministry of civil aviation."IndiGo now informs passengers about potential cancellations at least six hours before the scheduled departure time," said Madhu Sudan Shankar, joint secretary, ministry of civil aviation, speaking to the media at Mumbai airport.

A week after the turbulence left lakhs of IndiGo passengers stranded in airports across India, the ministry of civil aviation ordered senior officers to inspect 10 major airports, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Guwahati, Goa and Thiruvananthapuram.

Early on Tuesday, the officials landed at these airports to carry out surprise audits. IndiGo had 3,171 scheduled movements or flights planned from Mumbai during the eight-day period but managed to operate only 2,266 flights, with the sharpest deterioration seen on Dec 4 and 5, said the ministry. The cancellations escalated from 14 on Dec 1 to 295 on Dec 5 before easing through the weekend. Delay figures also remained elevated, peaking at 281 on Dec 3.

Aviation officials said the operational strain created a cascading impact across terminals as flight disruptions piled up through the week.

Around 780 check-in bags belonging to passengers of cancelled flights were pending delivery; the official said 90% of these will be delivered by Wednesday to passengers' addresses.Passenger impact was substantial. A total of 40,789 travellers were hit by cancellations and 2,66,567 by delayed departures from Mumbai, the data showed.

Officials noted these figures represent primary disruption and do not capture secondary consequences such as missed connections, exams or medical appointments.The heaviest domestic disruption from Mumbai was on routes to Ahmedabad, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Cochin, Goa and Lucknow, while long-haul operations to Amsterdam and Istanbul also saw significant delays and cancellations. Sectoral imbalance in crew and aircraft positioning contributed to uneven recovery across the network, officials said. "We went and saw all the places, including a cargo handling area, baggage handling area and spoke with passengers.

A lot of improvements have happened," said Shankar. Airports have been told to ensure essential facilities like drinking water and minimise inconvenience.