India’s air travel network was thrown into chaos for a fourth consecutive day on Friday as IndiGo, the country’s largest airline, cancelled around 500 flights nationwide — including all departures from New Delhi — prompting the government to step in with emergency relief measures.
IndiGo, which handles more than 60 per cent of India’s domestic air traffic, has been struggling to comply with newly introduced aviation regulations aimed at improving safety. The stricter rules, which took effect on Nov. 1, limit pilot flying hours and reduce the number of night-time landings allowed each week.
The airline acknowledged on Friday that it failed to adequately prepare for the transition, particularly with travel demand surging ahead of the December holiday peak. The result has been mass cancellations, operational bottlenecks and thousands of stranded passengers across the country.
“These last few days, we have [had] a serious operational crisis,” IndiGo said in a statement. “While this will not get resolved overnight, we assure you we will do everything in our capacity to help you in the meantime.”
To ease the turmoil, India’s civil aviation regulator granted IndiGo temporary exemptions from some of the new pilot duty rules. The airline had earlier warned that operations might not fully normalize until Feb. 10, but on Friday said travellers should expect “progressive improvement” beginning Saturday. Other major carriers, including Air India and Akasa, have not reported disruptions due to the new rules.
The extent of Friday’s cancellations was severe: Delhi airport reported that every scheduled IndiGo departure — roughly 235 flights — was cancelled for the day. Chennai also announced a full halt to outgoing IndiGo flights. Major hubs saw significant cancellations as well, including 165 flights in Mumbai, 102 in Bengaluru and 92 in Hyderabad, according to airport sources.
At airports across India, scenes of long queues, angry confrontations and stranded families dominated the morning. Videos circulating online showed passengers shouting “Down with IndiGo!” at Bengaluru airport, while another clip captured a father pleading with staff for a sanitary pad for his daughter. One widely shared post showed dozens of exhausted children stuck at Delhi airport since 4 a.m.
IndiGo’s stock fell nearly 3 per cent on Friday, capping a week-long slump of more than 10 per cent. The country’s main opposition party has demanded a parliamentary discussion on the crisis.
Under the new safety rules, pilots are limited to two night-time landings per week, down from six previously. That particular requirement has been paused for IndiGo until Feb. 10, and regulators have also temporarily relaxed restrictions on maximum flight duty periods for some night operations.
To mitigate disruption, IndiGo said it will waive all cancellation and booking-change fees for travel between Dec. 5 and Dec. 15. The airline has also secured hotel rooms and ground transportation for stranded customers.
Despite emergency measures, normalcy may take weeks. The scale of the crisis — and its impact on holiday travel — underscores the pressures on India’s fast-growing aviation sector, where safety reforms and operational capacity are increasingly colliding.