Indigo crisis | No info about flight disruptions, expensive alternate options: Passengers share ordeal

Mumbai: The ordeal of IndiGo passengers does not seem to ebb with many complaining that the airline is still not communicating to them about flight delays and cancellations, all of which was adding to the travel cost.

Muneeb Chaurasiya had a flight on Thursday from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh to Mumbai along with a friend and his mother. But when he reached Gorakhpur airport, which is 44 kilometres from his residence, to take the 4 pm flight, he was told that it was delayed. At 9 pm, the airlines communicated to him that the flight has been cancelled and rescheduled to Friday.

On Friday, when Chaurasiya reached the airport, he was again told that the flight had been cancelled. "It is not like Mumbai where one has good public transport. Coming to the airport alone costs Rs 2,000 one way. I made this journey four times (two times to and fro) which cost me Rs 8,000 and my ticket to Mumbai was Rs 10,000," said Chaurasiya.

Frustrated, he sought full refund from Indigo and booked train tickets to Mumbai since fares of other airlines have shot up to Rs 53,000 per person. "It was not just my flight that was delayed. There is chaos at the airport and flights to other cities have been cancelled," Chaurasiya added.

Chaos prevailed at the Mumbai airport as some angry passengers were seen shouting at IndiGo staff over the cancellation of flights.

Abhilasha Singh, a media professional, also had a similar story. A Bihar native, she was to travel to Patna from Mumbai on an IndiGo flight. Singh said she received a message at 6.30 am that her IndiGo flight is on time. "When I reached the airport, I was told the flight had been cancelled. They did not even inform me about the cancellation. The IndiGo ground staff offered to reschedule the booking but there were many passengers at the airport whose bookings were rescheduled a day before and reached the airport only to find out that their flight was again cancelled," Singh said.

Singh further added that she tried booking an alternative flight but prices have shot up.

Nayandeep Rakshit, a content creator, is in Hyderabad for a family function with his mother and both have a return flight to Mumbai and Kolkata on Monday. He is unsure about how to come to Mumbai. "We are unsure whether the flight will take off. My cousin was travelling from Hyderabad to Delhi. He dropped his luggage at the counter, completed the security check and reached the boarding gate only to realize that his flight had been cancelled," Rakshit added.

Air travel across India remained in chaos for a fourth straight day on Friday as IndiGo, the country's largest airline, scrapped around 500 flights, leaving thousands of passengers stranded for several hours at a stretch with little clarity on alternatives. The crisis was sparked after IndiGo, which controls about two-thirds of India's domestic traffic, failed to plan for new pilot flying-time regulations.

Meanwhile, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers on Friday said the airline expects to have less than 1,000 flight cancellations on Saturday and that the situation is anticipated to normalise between December 10-15.