Worst day at city airport: Flyers stuck in transit after IndiGo cancels 80% flights
Times of India | 6 December 2025
Kolkata: Utter chaos descended at Kolkata airport on Friday morning after IndiGo Airlines' sudden cancelled 40% flights it operates out of the city. Initially, the news left everyone — flyers, airport officials and even a section of airline staff — stunned before the astonishment turned to bewilderment and ultimately anger. There was a rerun around 3 in the afternoon when the carrier announced the cancellation of another 42 flights, taking the total cancellation to 80% for the day.
Between Wednesday and Friday, IndiGo Airlines that operates 112 flights out of Kolkata daily had cancelled over 150 flights. Those flights that operated took off after several hours of delay. Many were also rescheduled.
While the situation was chaotic on Wednesday and Thursday, it was complete mayhem on Friday when flyers booked on nearly 50 flights learnt that the flights had been cancelled. "Nearly 300 passengers who had already checked in for flights and completed security checks were told the fights had been cancelled. It was a challenge escorting them out of the security hold area," recounted an airport official.
By afternoon, the departure hall had gotten so crowded that passengers were asked to exit through the entry gates. "There is chaos everywhere. Passengers arguing with IndiGo staff… some angry, some crying, many simply confused. Looked up at the screen — back-to-back delays and cancellations," wrote Vikas Chopra, a flyer.
Another flyer Arindam Das wrote: "Our Pune-Kolkata flight got cancelled after I reached the airport. No Plan B. Missed my cousin's wedding."
Down on its knees, IndiGo issued an apology on social media while confirming that Friday's disruption was the worst and that the "issue will not be resolved overnight".
"We are known for our reliability. But in these last few days, we have had a serious operational crisis. For many customers, their journeys were cancelled, and many of you were at the airports, with long wait times and little information. Today should be the day with the highest number of cancellations, as we are doing all that is necessary to reboot all our systems and schedules for progressive improvement starting tomorrow," the airline said in a long statement.
Sources in the airline said the mass cancellations that was affected on Friday was to reset its operations from Saturday onwards when it claimed the situation would return to normal. The optimism was based on the civil aviation regulator DGCA's largesse rather than any corrective measures on the part of the airline.
This capitulation by DGCA resulted in a backlash from many. "So the blackmail by @IndiGo6E worked. What about the problems faced by the passengers? No accountability??," wrote Brindavan Giri on X. Stand-up comedian Abijit Ganguly also lambasted the airline and called it a "planned strike to strong-arm the govt into giving it what it wants".
"Before Wednesday, eight out of 10 flight bookings that we did were on IndiGo. Today, there have been no takers since the airline's booking portal reopened. It will take some time for people to regain confidence," said Travel Agents Association of India chairman (east) Anjani Dhanuka.