India's travel chaos has worsened after the country's largest airline IndiGo cancelled hundreds of scheduled flights on Friday after three days of widespread disruption across its network.
The carrier, which has a 60% market share in India and flies more than 2,000 flights a day, has been facing pilot shortages after it failed to adapt to new crew rostering rules.
Thousands of passengers are stranded across India in what's a busy travel season, with all IndiGo flights from the capital Delhi cancelled.
IndiGo has said operations will return to full normalcy only by 10 February, and has sought temporary relief on the new rules that call for more rest hours and restricted night-duty.
The airline has also said it will reduce its flight operations to minimise disruptions from 8 December.
The government has said it is closely monitoring the situation, with the federal aviation minister expressing clear displeasure with how the airline handled the situation.
India's aviation regulator stated the disruptions were primarily due to misjudgment and planning gaps in implementing the new flight duty time limitation rules.
The regulator has directed IndiGo to submit a detailed plan on crew recruitment, training, roster restructuring, safety-risk assessments, and other mitigation measures with immediate effect.
Meanwhile, IndiGo has drawn sharp criticism from the Airline Pilots Association of India, claiming that any relief granted to the airline on duty timings undermines the spirit of the new regulations and gravely compromises public safety.
Under the new rules, pilots are provided more rest, with a major change mandating them to make two night-time landings per week, down from six under the old rules.
Passengers have expressed their frustration on social media, citing a lack of timely information and being stranded at airports without food.
Singapore's High Commissioner to India, Simon Wong, expressed his dismay as he joined the thousands left stranded, missing the wedding of a young staff member.
Major airports in Delhi, Mumbai, and other cities have issued advisories urging passengers to check the status of their flights before heading to the airport.
