Over 80 IndiGo flights cancelled, 11 diverted on bad weather, crew shortage

Over 80 IndiGo flights were cancelled over the weekend as a consequential impact of diversions and pilots shortage, said sources.

Apart from that, thirty eight flights from different airlines were diverted in total. Eleven of those flights were of IndiGo after Delhi was hit by a hailstorm on Thursday evening. This had a cascading impact on the airline's operations resulting in flight delays and cancellations over the next three days.

Flight diversions results in duty time extension for pilots and while the civil aviation regulator does allow a dispensation in work hours, this puts a strain on airline's operations. Pilots shortages also aggravated the situation as the airline has just enough number of pilots to maintain it's daily operations. "Even a two-hour flight disruption has severe impact on the schedules," an airline source said.
 

IndiGo confirmed its flights were impacted due to hailstorm. "Due to a severe hailstorm in North India, 11 IndiGo flights were diverted. Consequently, this disrupted operations across our network the following day. As part of recovering our schedule, positioning of the crew and aircraft had to be readjusted. As a result, a number of flights were cancelled.  We regret the inconvenience caused to our customers," the airline said in a statement.

The airline operates over 1,300 daily flights and has around 3,000 pilots on its rolls.