Disruptions to IndiGo's operations continued for a second consecutive day as the carrier cancelled over 300 domestic and international flights across several airports, including Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore on Thursday.
Several of its services were also delayed at various airports, affecting hundreds of passengers.
The disruptions came a day after more than 200 flights were cancelled and many others delayed amid a nationwide crew shortage and software glitches.
The airline has been asked to report to the DGCA Headquarters on Thursday to present the facts leading to the current situation along with plans to mitigate the ongoing delays and cancellations.
According to a spokesperson at Delhi's IGIA, a total of 44 departing and 47 arriving flights were cancelled as of 1 pm on Thursday.
"These were planned cancellations decided upon yesterday after the chaos. The airline has already alerted the airport and its customers about it," a spokesperson said.
The cancelled flights include those from Delhi to Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru.
Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport reported a total of 70 flight cancellations, including around 40 outbound and 30 inbound. At Mumbai airport, 45 departing and 41 incoming flights have been cancelled, affecting a total of 86 flights.
At Chennai airport, 13 outgoing and 13 incoming flights have been cancelled.
"They are mainly to the metro cities. The figure is till afternoon and more cancellations are expected. Apart from the IndiGo operational issue, the weather conditions at Chennai and the surrounding airports is also causing the cancellations. Many flights are getting delayed and passengers are given updates on them on their mobiles every 15 minutes," a source said.
At Hyderabad, 18 flights were cancelled, and an additional 33 outbound and 35 inbound flights are expected to be cancelled on Thursday, according to sources at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.
"We have been at Hyderabad Airport from yesterday at 6:00 PM until today at 9:00 AM over 12 hours with no action taken by IndiGo regarding the Pune flight. This situation has caused significant inconvenience," a netizen said in a post on Thursday.
"Total chaos at Hyderabad airport today... flights delayed 12+ hours. To not give accommodation, they kept pushing it by "just 2 more hours" every single time for 12 hours. Same excuse: crew is coming soon. Unacceptable," another flyer said.
At Jaipur International Airport, Rajasthan's busiest airport, the airport authorities have swung action to assist the public after four flights were cancelled yesterday. The arrangements continue to be in place today also, a source said.
"The majority of passengers who visit the airport are transit passengers. We have added 90 seats so that the public can wait comfortably in case of delays. We have also increased manpower here to guide and assist passengers," the source elaborated.
Another additional queue has been put in place for passengers with reduced mobility while Indigo has increased the number of counters from 15 to 17.
Extra seating arrangements have been put in place, and waiting passengers are being provided with water and refreshments in Delhi and Chennai.
Explaining the fiasco, a senior airline official said, "The reason for the huge delays is something we are aware of. The server of the SITA software used by the airline became very slow on Wednesday. Boarding passes and tickets took very long to be issued and it delayed every flight for hours," he explained.
The airline, which operates over 2,200 flights daily, has scored a mere 35% on the punctuality front in operations on December 2 (Tuesday), reveals data released by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. This is the worst score among all the leading airlines assessed.
An official release from the aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday said a total of 1,232 flights had been cancelled by Indigo in November with 755 of them cancelled due to crew and Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) constraints.
Sources told TNIE that Indigo is facing a severe shortage of both cockpit and cabin crew and said it is due to a massive recruitment drive by international airline Emirates at Delhi and Mumbai this week.
However, Indigo attributed the significant disruption to multiple reasons, including unforeseen operational challenges.
In a statement last night, the airline said they have introduced calibrated measures to the system to be in place for the next 48 hours in order to stabilise the system.
(With inputs from PTI)