UAE-India Indigo Flights Returning To Normal After Weekend Disruptions

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)

After a weekend of severe flight disruptions that left some passengers facing delays of more than 10 hours, Indigo operations between the UAE and India began slowly returning to normal. Many flights on Sunday departed and landed on time, while others experienced delays ranging from 15 to 90 minutes. A few, however, were held up for nearly 10 hours.

Early on Sunday, the Indigo flight from Ras Al Khaimah to Hyderabad departed at its scheduled time of 2.30 am, as did the Sharjah–Lucknow service at 2am. The Dubai-Chennai flight was also scheduled to operate on time.

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Meanwhile, the Dubai-Mumbai service was delayed by 15 minutes, and the Delhi-Dubai flight (6E 1463) departed 17 minutes late. In contrast, the Dubai-Kozhikode flight took off at 12.44pm; almost ten hours past its scheduled departure of 3.20am.

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All over India, flight disruptions continued. On the sixth day of flight disruptions, India's largest airlines cancelled 500 domestic flights, fewer than Saturday's 700 and Friday's 1,000. The company posted an update saying that the airline was on track to operate over 1650 flights, up from 1500 flights on Saturday. On time performance was up from 30 per cent to 75 per cent on Sunday and the company has pledged full waiver on cancellations and reschedule requests for bookings till December 15.

Weekend chaos

The crisis began on Tuesday when Indigo's operations were hit hard, largely due to India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) implementing new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL). The rules require pilots to receive 48 hours of rest per week and limit them to two night landings per week, down from the earlier allowance of six. Introduced in 2024 to give airlines time to hire more staff, the rules followed a growing number of pilot fatigue complaints.

On Friday, India's Ministry of Civil Aviation placed the new FDTL directives in abeyance with immediate effect, saying safety would not be compromised. The government also implemented additional measures, including capping airfares after ticket prices surged during the disruption.

Growing anger

Over the last week, there was growing public anger after thousands of people were left stranded by the cancellations. According to Indian media reports, while some people missed out getting to important occasions including weddings and funerals, others lost out on their jobs and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. One Indian entrepreneur took to LinkedIn to voice her anger about her relatives and her siblings not being able to attend her father's funeral.

Meanwhile, India's civil aviation minister told media that a committee has been formed to probe the disruptions and to ensure that those responsible were held accountable. A parliamentary panel is also set to question the airline's top management about the issues.

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