IndiGo flight chaos: 9-hour delay forces Chandigarh-Pune passengers to spend night at Mohali airport

IndiGo, India’s largest airline, cancelled more than 550 flights on Thursday as widespread operational disruptions continued for the third consecutive day.

The 20-year-old carrier is battling severe scheduling challenges triggered by crew shortages, technology issues and winter-related congestion.

In Mohali, IndiGo passengers continued to face severe inconvenience for the fourth consecutive day, with several flights cancelled and many others running hours behind schedule on Friday.

The Chandigarh–Pune flight, scheduled to depart at 9:15 pm on Thursday, finally took off at 7:50 am on Friday, forcing all passengers to spend a sleepless night at the Mohali airport.

Frustrated travellers said IndiGo officials kept revising the departure time multiple times through the night, offering vague responses that appeared to be “time-buying tactics.”

“One delay followed another — from 9:15 pm to 11:45 pm, then 12:10 am, and later 1:10 am,” a passenger recounted. “At 4 am, after we confronted the officials, they admitted that boarding was only just starting for the Pune–Chandigarh inbound flight due to heavy congestion at Pune airport. We were finally allowed to board around 7:15 am, but the flight was delayed yet again because a passenger had checked in luggage and disappeared. His baggage had to be offloaded, and the plane took off at 7:50 am.”

Passengers complained that airline staff lacked clarity on the schedule and avoided giving definite answers throughout the night.

Another traveller said the airline’s helpline numbers were “useless,” adding, “No one has been answering calls since yesterday evening”.

The airline has revised its schedules to stabilise operations, resulting in planned cancellations for the next two to three days. IndiGo typically operates around 2,300 flights daily, and its on-time performance has plunged sharply — from 35% on Tuesday to 19.7% on Wednesday.

Government steps in

Senior officials from the Civil Aviation Ministry and the DGCA met IndiGo leadership on Thursday to review the crisis and coordinate corrective actions. CEO Pieter Elbers told employees that restoring normal operations and punctuality would not be an “easy target”.

Major airports hit hard

According to PTI, cancellations were reported across all major hubs:

Mumbai: 118

Bengaluru: 100

Hyderabad: 75

Kolkata: 35

Chennai: 26

Goa: 11

More disruptions occurred at other airports nationwide.

Root Cause: Miscalculation under new duty-time rules

IndiGo acknowledged that it underestimated pilot and cabin crew requirements under Phase 2 of the revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms, implemented on November 1 following a court order. The new standards, intended to strengthen fatigue management and pilot safety, significantly changed crew rostering, especially for night operations.

The airline said staffing needs under the new rules turned out to be higher than anticipated. Compounding the issue, winter delays and airport congestion further strained operations.

In response, authorities have temporarily rolled back two key provisions:

Night duty definition reverted to midnight–5 am from midnight–6 am

The cap on two night landings per pilot has been paused

These interim measures aim to ease crew availability and stabilise IndiGo’s operations over the coming days.