IndiGo disruptions continued on Monday, though the scale of the problem shrank compared to previous days. At the Calcutta airport, officials said cancellations still occurred, but far fewer than on Sunday.
Many passengers arrived hoping to reach their destinations after earlier cancellations. Unlike recent days, airline staff were able to assist: several passengers were rebooked, luggage returned, and refunds processed.
About 200 pieces of registered luggage still remain in the terminal basement.
“We are expecting all the luggage to be cleared in another four days,” said an airport
official.
Around 1pm, the IndiGo counter at Gate 3C was crowded but calmer than Sunday. Additional plastic chairs arranged for stranded passengers were removed. “We had arranged for around 600 chairs. Half of them were removed on Monday because the situation improved. The additional retiring rooms allocated to IndiGo are also being restored to their original condition,” the official said.
Among those stranded were two Bulgarians, Radina Dobreva, 23, and her mother Ivelina, 54. Their flight to Mumbai on Sunday night was cancelled, causing them to miss onward connections to Istanbul and Sofia.
They eventually left on an 8.30pm flight to Mumbai on Monday. Radina said: “We did not receive any compensation from IndiGo. We do not know anyone here, and it has been extremely difficult without enough cash.”
Sundar G from Chennai, who arrived from Ho Chi Minh City on December 5 with his wife, faced multiple cancellations. Their daughter’s Calcutta-Mumbai flight was also cancelled. They were rescheduled — the couple on a Chennai-bound flight scheduled at 11.10pm on December 5 and their daughter on an 11.30pm flight to Mumbai on December 6. The three heaved a sigh of relief but it was short-lived. Both flights got cancelled again.
“We did not want to take another chance with IndiGo and looked for other airlines. There were hardly any seats available. Finally, we booked tickets on Akasa Air. Our daughter left on Sunday night. We have a flight at 8.30pm on Monday. But it will go to Bengaluru. We will have to hire a car from Bengaluru to Chennai,” said Sundar.
He was at the airport early to press for a refund from IndiGo. After a long wait, he was promised that the partial amount — the flight from Vietnam to Calcutta, was on schedule — would be processed but was not given a timeline. “What about the extra money I had to spend on hotel accommodation and other expenses here?” asked Sundar.
Aishwarya Mitra, an advertising professional, was one of the lucky ones.
Mitra works in the creative team of an international advertising, public relations, and digital marketing company in Delhi. She was booked on a flight to the capital at 7am on Monday. Late on Sunday night, she got a message that the flight had been cancelled. It was after she did a web check-in and was issued the boarding pass.
“I have a very important client meeting on Tuesday. I have to reach Delhi before that,” said Aishwarya, who was at the IndiGo counter on Monday.
After more than an hour, she was finally slotted on a 7.30pm flight to Delhi. It departed on schedule.
Not all fared as well. Sudip Rakshit and his wife, travelling back to Bengaluru, faced a cancellation of their 4am flight. Their pet Beagle, ill in Bengaluru, necessitated urgent travel. The couple booked a SpiceJet flight via Chennai at four times the original ticket cost, arriving later than the direct IndiGo service would have.
Officials said IndiGo has recorded “considerable and consistent improvement across the network.”
A spokesperson said the airline was set to operate over 1,800 flights on Monday. “We have optimised our operations and managed to reduce the number of cancellations, which are being notified to customers in advance, and our on-time performance has also improved to 91 per cent across the network,” the spokesperson said.
“All cancellations in today’s schedule were executed yesterday, ensuring advance notifications sent to customers,” the spokesperson added.
