A cute shortage of pilots along with Notice to Airmen (NOTAMs) at some airports forced IndiGo to cancel around 130 flights for Friday, a source said. The cancelled flights account for almost 10 per cent of the airlines' operations, the source said. An Indigo spokesperson, however, said the airline has not cancelled any additional flights other than the schedule cancellations.
It is to be noted that the Gurugram-based budget carrier operates over 1,300 flights per day with a fleet of 210 planes.The source said "IndiGo has cancelled around 130 flights for Friday as it continues to face a shortage of pilots,". The airline has not pulled out any additional flights other than the schedule cancellations but refused to issue a statement.
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However when a query sent to IndiGo spokesperson and also to its chief operating officer Wolfgang Prock-Shauer remained unanswered. The budget carrier has been cancelling flights since last Saturday after rain and hailstorm hit the Delhi-NCR region last week. On Thursday it did not operate as many as 70 flights, citing reasons like planned cancellations and partial closure of the Bengaluru airport due to the Air Show. It had cancelled 49 flights on Wednesday as well.
It said in a statement on Wednesday "The cancellations on February 13 were caused by several factors like anticipated weather conditions on February 14 and NOTAMS at various airports. This resulted in extended duty times which then made it necessary to re-roster our crew and optimise our operations,". Further, the airline said it has decided to curtail its schedule for the remaining period of this month by "approximately 30 flights a day". The carrier had said "This is in order to stabilise its operation and adjust crew rosters due to the reasons mentioned above. Passengers are in the process of being informed and re-accommodated,".
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