India’s largest carrier cancels dozens of flights over technical issues, congestion, operational requirements

ISTANBUL

India’s largest carrier, IndiGo, said Wednesday that over 70 of its flights were canceled over crew shortages, technical problems and airport congestion, reported the Press Trust of India, citing sources.

IndiGo had "several unavoidable flight delays and some cancellations in the past few days due to various reasons including technology issues, airport congestion, and operational requirements," an airline spokesperson said in a statement.

The airline has been facing "acute crew shortage since the implementation of the second phase of the FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) norms, leading to cancellations and huge delays in its operations across the airports," reported the outlet, citing a source.

India's latest flight duty time limitation norms, whose second phase came into effect on Nov. 1, include increasing weekly rest periods to 48 hours, extending night hours, and limiting the number of night landings to only two, down from six previously.

IndiGo's situation "turned bad on Tuesday for the airline and the shortage turned worse on Wednesday with scores of flights cancelled and delayed from across airports in the country," it added.

The Indian airline's on-time performance from six key domestic airports fell to 35% on Tuesday whereas other domestic airlines clocked in at least 67.2%, according to the Civil Aviation Ministry.

As of Tuesday, IndiGo had a total of 416 planes in the fleet with 366 of them in operations and 50 on the ground.