IndiGo cancels 67 flights amid winter woes

IndiGo cancelled 67 flights across multiple airports on Thursday, citing forecasted bad weather and limited operational reasons, adding to the airline’s ongoing winter of turbulence amid regulatory scrutiny and a curtailed schedule.Data available on IndiGo’s website showed that of the total cancellations, only four flights were attributed to operational issues, while the overwhelming majority were linked to anticipated adverse weather conditions. Airports affected included Agartala, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Varanasi and Bengaluru, among others.The latest round of cancellations comes during the aviation regulator’s officially declared fog season.The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has designated the period between December 10 and February 10 as the winter fog window, a time when flight operations are routinely challenged by low visibility across northern and eastern parts of the country.Fog season norms and the CAT-III challengeUnder the DGCA’s fog operations framework, airlines are required to ensure adequate preparedness for low-visibility landings. This includes mandatory rostering of pilots trained for CAT-IIIB operations and deploying aircraft that are compliant with Category-III landing systems.Category-III technology allows aircraft to land even in dense fog. While Category-III-A permits landings with a runway visual range (RVR) of up to 200 metres, the more advanced Category-III-B enables operations when visibility drops below 50 metres-- conditions commonly seen during peak winter fog.IndiGo’s latest disruptions are unfolding at a time when the airline’s operations remain under DGCA monitoring, following a spate of large-scale cancellations earlier this month that left thousands of passengers stranded across the country.Reduced schedules, regulator probe and passenger angerIndiGo is currently operating a trimmed-down winter schedule as per government directions. Under its original winter plan, the airline was cleared to operate 15,014 domestic flights per week: around 2,144 flights a day, which was roughly six per cent higher than its summer 2025 schedule of 14,158 weekly flights.However, after severe disruptions earlier in December-- including the cancellation of nearly 1,600 flights on a single day due to revised pilot rest and duty norms, the government ordered a 10 per cent cut in the airline’s domestic operations. This effectively capped IndiGo’s daily domestic flights at about 1,930 under the current winter schedule.Between December 1 and December 9, the Rahul Bhatia-controlled airline cancelled thousands of flights, a phase the regulator linked to inadequate planning and crew shortages while implementing the new pilot duty and rest regulations that came into force on November 1. The fallout caused widespread inconvenience to lakhs of passengers nationwide.In response, the DGCA constituted a four-member inquiry panel to examine the root causes of the disruptions. The committee includes Joint Director General Sanjay Brahamane, Deputy Director General Amit Gupta, senior Flight Operations Inspector Kapil Manglik, and FOI Lokesh Rampal. The panel has already questioned IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer Isidre Porqueras and is expected to submit its findings later this week.Amid the fresh cancellations, IndiGo issued a travel advisory on X stating, “Low visibility and fog over Bangalore has impacted flight schedule. We are keeping a close watch on the weather and doing our best where you need to be safely, smoothly”.The advisory, however, did little to pacify frustrated travellers. Responding on X, one passenger wrote, “My flight on December 20 from Bhubaneswar to Ahmedabad got delayed for more than five hours, and today my return flight from Ahmedabad to Bhubaneswar also got delayed more than three hours with the same excuse as bad weather. I am travelling with my senior citizen parents, and this delay is not acceptable. Need proper explanation, along with compensation”.(With inputs from PTI)