Agartala: IndiGo cancelled five scheduled flights from Agartala on Tuesday as disruptions at the crisis-hit airline continued for the eighth straight day, an airport official said.
The MBB Airport in Agartala is the second-busiest in the Northeast, with around 15 flights carrying about 3,000 passengers per day.
The carrier, controlled by Rahul Bhatia and operating more than 2,200 flights daily across over 90 domestic and 40 international destinations, has been grappling with prolonged operational challenges.
“IndiGo cancelled five flights from Agartala today. The remaining six are operating as per schedule,” said Airport Director K. M. Nehra.
He said Air India Express and Akasa continued to operate their flights as per schedule.
With the IndiGo airlines experiencing disruptions and cancellations across the country, the aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) curtailed the airline’s winter flight schedule by 5%, saying IndiGo couldn’t handle the operations efficiently.
IndiGo is the largest domestic carrier in the country and commands 60% of India’s domestic market. The airline operates 2,200 flights a day in the winter schedule.
Over 400 IndiGo flights were cancelled on Tuesday across Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai, among other airports.
The mass cancellations of IndiGo flights began on Tuesday last week, and nearly 5,000 flights have been cancelled so far.
Even as the airline said the situation was returning to normalcy, the airline saw over 500 fresh cancellations on Monday, stranding several passengers on airports.
The crisis also echoed in Parliament today, with civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu sharing updates on refunds, baggage claim and more.
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Making a statement in the Lok Sabha, Naidu said “strict and appropriate action will be taken” against IndiGo for the flight disruptions that have affected passengers across the country.
The minister said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has already issued notices to IndiGo and that the airline is being held fully accountable for the chaos caused by its internal crew-rostering failures.
