Civil Aviation Minister Cites Crew Mismanagement as Airlines’ Downfall

IndiGo flight cancellations live updates: “I am exhausted but I am smiling and trying to be calm, because I need to find a way to reach home,” said Sanjay Rabari as he spent countless hours on Friday outside Terminal 3 of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport trying to find a way home before his son’s birthday on December 6.

“I have only seen my son in photos and videos,” he said. Rabari took his first flight from Detroit, Michigan to Heathrow, London, following which he arrived in Delhi on Friday morning with a final leg of the journey to Ahmedabad remaining. However, his hopes were dashed when his IndiGo flight was cancelled, with no alternatives available. Read full story here.

IndiGo flight cancellations live updates: Rahul Gandhi has criticised the Centre over IndiGo experiencing operational disruptions and flight cancellations, attributing the issues to a “monopoly model”.

In an X post, Rahul Gandhi attributed the recent disruptions in the airlines to a monopoly in the aviation sector, demanding “fair competition” in the market.

“IndiGo fiasco is the cost of this Govt’s monopoly model. Once again, it’s ordinary Indians who pay the price – in delays, cancellations and helplessness. India deserves fair competition in every sector, not match-fixing monopolies,” the Congress MP wrote.

IndiGo flight status live updates: Thiruvananthapuram International Airport saw six domestic flights cancelled throughout the day, affecting passenger travel plans across key routes. Airport officials told ANI that the six cancelled domestic flights included three arrivals and three departures, operating on the Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru sectors.

Operations at Ahmedabad Airport were also impacted, with authorities reporting seven arrivals and 12 departures cancelled between 12 am and 6 am on December 6.

IndiGo flight status live updates: Disruptions in IndiGo’s flight operations left passengers stranded at Delhi airport.

A passenger told PTI, “My mother is in the hospital and my flight’s cancelled.”

IndiGo operates around 2,300 flights a day and has been cancelling flights in hundreds over the last four days as it struggled to secure adequate crew, with the second phase of the pilots’ flight duty and rest period norms kicking in.

IndiGo flight status live updates: Civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu on Friday held IndiGo’s mismanagement regarding its crew responsible for the disruption of its operations, leading to severe delays and congestion at the major airports across the country.

“…what has unfolded is due to mismanagement by IndiGo regarding its crew. We have given certain abeyance regarding FDTL norms to IndiGo to ensure normalcy,” Naidu said.

IndiGo flight status live updates: Speaking to ANI, a passenger said, “I was scheduled to go to Guwahati on a 6.15 am flight; this was a connecting flight from Kolkata. We were selected for Smart India Hackathon 2025; about 74,000 ideas were submitted there and nearly 1400 ideas were selected. Our centre was North-Eastern Hill University and we were scheduled to perform there. We had booked IndiGo flights.”

He added, “But the flight is delayed and so, we will not be able to go there. There is no other possible way of transportation. If we take a train, it will take us 3 days to reach there. Our hard work of 6-7 months is now wasted. We are returning home. Such opportunities are rare…”

IndiGo flight status live updates: As of now, there is no update on the total IndiGo flight cancellations across the country. So far, these airports have reported cancellations:

• Ahmedabad Airport: 19 flights cancelled
• Thiruvananthapuram airport: 6 flights cancelled

IndiGo flight status live updates: To soften the blow for stranded travellers, IndiGo announced several relief measures:

• Automatic refunds for all cancelled flights
• Full waiver on cancellation and rescheduling charges for travel between December 5 and December 15, 2025
• Thousands of hotel rooms arranged across multiple cities for affected passengers
• Ground transportation support to move passengers to hotels and alternate flights
• Food and snacks being offered at airports
• Lounge access for senior citizens wherever possible

IndiGo flight status live updates: Long queues were seen in visuals shared by PTI amid the ongoing operation disruptions at IndiGo. Many flights are being cancelled today as well for a fifth straight day.

IndiGo flight status live updates: Union civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu said, “…We have formed a committee which will inquire into all this so that they can establish where things went wrong and who did it wrong. We are going to take necessary action on that also. This thing shouldn’t be left unattended. We are taking strict action on this, so that whoever was responsible into this needs to pay for it.”

IndiGo flight status live updates: SpiceJet chairman & managing director Ajay Singh said that SpiceJet has been extending help by running 100 additional flights over the next few days amid the ongoing issue of IndiGo flight delays and cancellations nationwide.

“What happened is extremely unfortunate, and it has caused a huge amount of inconvenience to passengers…I am sure the government is working really hard to make sure the problem is resolved at the earliest…I am sure IndiGo is doing its best… We (SpiceJet) are attempting to help by running 100 additional flights over the next few days. It is important to find out what happened and why. We welcome the government’s decision to constitute a committee…” he said.

IndiGo flight status live updates: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers apologised to the airline’s customers in his first public remarks since the crisis began, adding: “I do understand that these disruptions … have shaken (customers’) belief in IndiGo’s reliability.”

Elbers added that it would take some time to return to a “full, normal situation”, and that it was anticipated this could be between December 10-15.

IndiGo flight status live updates: Out of the total 26 IndiGo flights scheduled at Thiruvananthapuram airport, 6 flights have been cancelled, airport officials told ANI. These include 3 domestic arrivals and 3 domestic departures.

IndiGo flight status live updates: 7 arrival flights and 12 departure flights were cancelled between 12 am and 6 am on December 6 at Ahmedabad Airport, officials told ANI.

IndiGo flight status live updates: Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi issued a passenger advisory, assuring that Indigo flight operations are now “steadily resuming” after the airline fiasco that saw over 1,000 flights cancelled on Friday.

“We are glad to update that Indigo flight operations are now steadily resuming and getting back to normalcy following the brief disruption. Please check the status of your booking and flight before leaving from home,” Delhi Airport said.

IndiGo flight status live updates: The Railway Ministry on Friday decided to increase 116 coaches in 37 premium trains for the convenience of travellers in view of the disruption of Indigo airline’s flight services.

“These trains originate from important stations such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Jammu Tawi, Patna, Howrah and Chennai, and provide connectivity to several big and small cities,” officials said.

IndiGo flight status live updates: As IndiGo cancelled over 1,000 flights on Friday, passengers were forced to look for alternatives to reach their destinations and they were met with skyrocketing fares offered by other airlines. Some passengers said that the fares were two to three times than the normal amount.

A travel portal recently showed the fastest flight from Delhi to Bengaluru on Air India at over ₹40,000 on December 4. A one-way one-stop economy-class SpiceJet Kolkata-Mumbai flight ticket for December 6 costed up to ₹90,000, and a similar ticket of Air India for Mumbai-Bhubaneswar went up to ₹84,485, according to the airlines’ websites.

IndiGo flight status live updates: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) granted IndiGo relief from provisions limiting pilot duty hours at night until February 10. The regulator insisted the exemption was granted “solely to facilitate operational stabilisation.

On Friday, DGCA also constituted a four-member committee to conduct an independent review of the operational breakdown, citing “deficiencies in internal oversight, operational preparedness, and compliance planning”.

IndiGo flight status live updates: IndiGo CEO Peter Elbers said that things are expected to return to normal between December 10 and 15.

“December 5 was the most severely impacted day, with the number of cancellations well over 1000. I extend our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience it has caused to our customers. It will take some time to return to a full normal situation, which we do anticipate between 10-15 December,” Elbers said in a video message.