IndiGo said on Thursday that its operations were improving day by day, but passengers are still facing disruptions, with some avoiding the airline.

A group of 30 travellers booked a 10-day trip to Kerala and were scheduled to fly to Trivandrum on December 9, but the flight was cancelled, throwing their plans into disarray.

“Four cancelled their tickets, several took a train, and four others rebooked on the next day’s flight, paying extra,” said Raktim Roy, managing director of Dolphin Travels, which arranged the trip. “Their return tickets are for December 20, and we hope there won’t be more cancellations.”

Among the affected were Somenath Bandyopadhyay, a retired state government employee from Anandapur, and his wife. “The flight was first rescheduled two days ago, but 12 hours before departure, it was cancelled. I tried calling IndiGo’s call centre to rebook on December 10, but no one answered,” Bandyopadhyay said.

They eventually booked two tickets on December 10 at an extra cost of ₹22,000. “I lost another ₹3,000 as the portal deducted a service fee from the refunded ticket. Our one-day hotel booking also went waste,” he added.

Atish Dipankar Ghosh, a doctor, and his wife, also part of the group, said they felt so disheartened by the cancellation that they decided not to travel.

Another group of 11 heading to Vaishno Devi, with tickets booked three months ago, faced similar disruptions. “They panicked as they had also booked helicopter services and needed to reach Srinagar on time,” said their travel agent. Despite being informed the flight would operate, they bought new tickets on Akasa Air via Delhi, spending an additional ₹1 lakh.

“The apprehension among travellers about IndiGo is still high. It will take time for the airline to regain market confidence,” said Anil Punjabi, chairman of the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), eastern region.