“We have 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,” the airline spokesperson said in a statement.

“IndiGo has been facing acute crew shortage since the implementation of the second phase of the flight duty time limitation (FDTL) norms, leading to cancellations and huge delays in its operations across the airports,” a source told PTI.

“The 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,” the source said.

What are FDTL norms

Flight Duty Time Limitation norms are designed to manage pilot fatigue. These were implemented recently and have at least partially resulted in IndiGo being unable to manage

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The new FDTL norms have increased the weekly rest period for pilots to 48 hours. Night landings, on the other hand, have been limited to two from six earlier.

IndiGo on-time performance suffers

IndiGo’s on-time performance, a key metric for commercial flights, fell to 35 per cent on Tuesday. Air India clocked 67.2 per cent, Air India Express 79.5 per cent, SpiceJet 82.50 per cent and Akasa Air 73.20 per cent during the same period, according to the Civil Aviation Ministry website. The data is for six key domestic airports.

Chaos at Hyderabad airport

IndiGo cancelled 13 flights to various destinations, including Delhi and Bengaluru from Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, throwing airport operations into disarray, sources told PTI.

On its part, the airport said that some IndiGo flights were impacted due to airline-related technology and operational issues. This, it said, caused delays and cancellations.

IndiGo also cancelled 18 incoming flights from various destinations, sources told PTI.