IndiGo’s flight disruptions eased further on Tuesday, but passengers continued to face cancellations, delayed refunds, and missing luggage at the Calcutta airport, keeping the terminal busy with concerned fliers.
Officials at the airport said IndiGo operated 180 flights on Tuesday — 91 departures and 89 arrivals. Before last week’s operational crisis, the airline ran more than 240 flights daily from the city.
Tanvi Sundriyal, director at the ministry of civil aviation, visited the Calcutta airport on Tuesday to review the situation. “She spoke to a dozen IndiGo passengers and sought their feedback,” said an airport official.
Sundriyal also inspected ticket booking counters, check-in areas, departure gates and queue management zones. A review meeting was held to discuss ongoing measures and additional steps needed to stabilise flight operations, officials added.
Despite the easing of disruptions, problems persisted.
The IndiGo counter at Gate 3C on the departure level was relatively quiet on Tuesday afternoon, a stark contrast to last week when agitated passengers had filled the area. Many still came to the airport to follow up on refunds or retrieve lost luggage.
Chiranjib Dey and Tapas Saha, employees at a pharmaceutical company, were scheduled to fly to Delhi on Tuesday evening. Their 6pm flight was cancelled, prompting a visit to the airline counter for assistance. “They said they were trying to slot us on the 7.30pm flight, but it’s usually packed. So we bought tickets on a SpiceJet flight at 4.15pm,” said Dey.
The new tickets cost ₹12,000 each, almost double the original IndiGo fare. “We have sought a refund. The executive at the counter said it would take three to four working days,” Dey added.
Similarly, Shambo Nayek, 30, from Beleghata, whose Monday afternoon flight to Mumbai was cancelled, visited the airport on Tuesday
seeking a refund. He was informed that the process would take “three to five working days”.
IndiGo CEO Peter Elbers posted a video message on Tuesday, apologising for the disruptions and outlining the carrier’s response. “Your airline, IndiGo, is back on its feet and our operations are stable. We’ve let you down when a major operational disruption happened and we are sorry for that,” he said.
“While we cannot undo the cancellations, I want to reassure you that ever since, our entire IndiGo team has been working very hard... Initially, our first priority was to get all stranded and delayed customers safely to their destinations or back home. Then we started our refunds. No questions asked. Lakhs of customers have already received their full refunds and we continue to do so on a daily basis...,” IndiGo CEO Elbers said.
“On December 5, we could only fly 700 flights. Thereafter, gradually, yet steadily, improving to 1,500 on December 6, 1650 on December 7, 1,800 yesterday, and today, more than 1,800. As of yesterday, we are back to flying to all the 138 destinations in our network and our on-time performance has also been normalised. Earlier, we had indicated to normalise between the 10th and 15th of December. I can confirm now that today, as of December 9th, our operations are fully stabilised...,” he added.
