IndiGo disruptions: Over 40,000 passengers hit at Mumbai airport since December 1; delays and cancellations pile up, says MIAL

More than 40,000 passengers were impacted by flight cancellations and another over 2.6 lakh faced long delays at Mumbai airport in the past week as IndiGo grappled with severe operational disruptions, Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) said on Tuesday. According to MIAL, a total of 40,789 passengers were affected due to the cancellation of 905 IndiGo flights between December 1 and December 8, while 2,66,567 travellers encountered inordinate delays during the same period. The airport operator said IndiGo had scheduled 3,171 flights at Mumbai during the reporting window but could operate only 2,266 of them, underscoring the scale of disruption in the airline’s operations. In addition, the airline delayed 1,475 flights by more than 30 minutes, MIAL said, adding that December 4 and 5 marked the peak of the disruption. MIAL noted that the worst-affected domestic sectors from Mumbai included Ahmedabad, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi, Goa and Lucknow, while Amsterdam and Istanbul were the most impacted international destinations. Earlier in the day, Civil Aviation Ministry Joint Secretary Madhu Sudan Shankar reviewed the situation at Mumbai airport amid the ongoing crisis affecting the country’s largest airline. IndiGo has been facing widespread cancellations and delays over the past week after new crew rostering rules came into effect, allowing increased rest periods for pilots and other staff, which disrupted schedules across its network,