Air travellers in Goa faced significant in convenience on Thursday as several IndiGo flights to and from the state were ei ther cancelled or delayed, reflecting the airline’s on going nationwide opera tional disruptions. According to official up dates from Goa Interna tional Airport (Dabolim) and Manohar International Airport (Mopa), 11 flights from Dabolim and five from Mopa were cancelled due to operational reasons. Ad ditionally, 25 flights from Dabolim and seven from Mopa experienced delays, ranging from a few minutes to up to five hours. Cancelled flights from Dabolim included servic es to Chandigarh, Indore, Mumbai, Surat, Delhi, Hy derabad, and Kolkata, while at Mopa, affected flights included incoming servic es from Hyderabad, Delhi, and Bengaluru, some of which were diverted. Pas sengers were advised to contact IndiGo for rebook ing, refunds, or alternate arrangements. The disruptions in Goa are part of a wider op erational crisis affecting IndiGo across India, the nation’s largest airline. On Thursday alone, more than 550 domestic and international flights were can celled, causing chaos at ma jor airports including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyder abad, and Kolkata. Accord ing to sources, 172 flights were cancelled at Delhi, 118 at Mumbai, 100 at Ban galore, 75 at Hyderabad, 35 at Kolkata, 26 at Chennai, and 11 at Goa, with other airports also affected. IndiGo, which operates around 2,300 flights daily, has traditionally relied on punctuality as a key feature of its service.
However, the airline’s on-time performance plummeted to 19.7 percent on Wednesday, down sharply from 35 per cent on Tuesday, indicating the scale of the disruption. The airline cited multiple factors behind the crisis, in cluding minor technology glitches, adverse weather, in creased air traffic congestion, cabin crew shortages, and the implementation of new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL), which mandate longer weekly rest periods for pilots and restrict night-time landings. The Federation of Indian Pilots has noted that the airline has struggled to adjust schedules under these new rules. In response to the disruptions, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers acknowledged the impact on both passengers and staff, saying: “We serve close to 380,000 customers a day and want each of them to have a good experience. We could not live up to that promise these past days and we have publicly apologised for that.” He added that normalising operations and restoring punctuality will “not be an easy target” and requires interventions across multiple levels. Passengers affected at Goa airports have been urged to check flight status and coordinate directly with the airline for rebooking or alternate arrangements. IndiGo has said it is implementing schedule adjustments over the next 48 hours to stabilise operations and reduce further disrup tion. As the festive season approaches, the ongoing flight dis ruptions are expected to heighten passenger frustration, particularly in tourist-heavy destinations like Goa, where air travel is a primary mode of transport
