IndiGo flight fiasco: Event crowds thin, difficult time for stranded passengers
Telegraph | 6 December 2025
Conferences, weddings and other events across the city are seeing fewer guests as IndiGo flight cancellations and delays leave attendees stranded. Many who had travelled to other cities for weddings or other events are struggling to find alternative transport to return home.
Doctors from other cities informed organisers of the International Conference on Advances in Reproductive Medicine in New Town that they would not be able to attend due to cancelled flights. The two-day conference was expecting 20 faculty members from India, of whom four have said they cannot attend. “Those who cannot come will deliver lectures online, but audience interaction is less in online mode,” said organising secretary Biswanath Ghosh Dastidar.
A university teacher from Calcutta scheduled to attend a conference in Silchar, Assam, on Friday was booked on a 7.55am IndiGo flight. His wife said: “The airline first preponed the flight by 10 minutes, and then at 3.30am, we received a cancellation message. He will attend online.”
Weddings have also been affected. Minu Gorai, 53, waited outside Calcutta airport’s IndiGo counter with her son, trying to reach Surat for her daughter’s wedding. Their 9.30am flight was first deferred to 4pm and then cancelled. “Other airlines were unaffordable — a connecting flight via Ahmedabad cost ₹40,000,” she said.
A group of 20 attending a wedding in Bhubaneswar faced similar disruptions. Their 1.30pm flight to Calcutta on Friday was deferred to 7pm. “Fearing cancellation, some made alternative travel arrangements,” their travel agent said.