Crew crunch hits IndiGo: 200 flights cancelled; chaos on

IndiGo cancelled more than 200 flights at various airports and scores of services were delayed on Wednesday as the country's largest airline grappled with significant operational disruptions mainly due to crew shortage and announced calibrated schedule adjustments for the next 48 hours to normalise the operations.

As part of the calibrated adjustments, there will be cancellations and rescheduling of flights, sources said on Wednesday, a day when airports witnessed chaos as hundreds of passengers faced hardships due to services getting cancelled and getting delayed for long. The airline, which operates around 2,300 domestic and international flights daily, on Wednesday said a "multitude of unforeseen operational challenges" have significantly disrupted its operations across the network for the past two days, and apologised to the passengers for the inconvenience.

The challenges include "minor technology glitches, schedule changes linked to the winter season, adverse weather conditions, increased congestion in the aviation system and the implementation of updated crew rostering rules (Flight Duty Time Limitations) had a negative compounding impact on our operations in a way that was not feasible to be anticipated," an airline spokesperson said in a statement.