‘People are taking out their anger on us, shouting with frustration:’ IndiGo staffers on facing the brunt

IndiGo ground staff said they, too, were blindsided. “People are taking out their anger on us shouting with frustration but we ourselves weren’t informed about cancellations or delays. IndiGo should have at least informed us, so we could’ve answered passengers,” said a ground staffer.

An airhostess claimed the airline failed to prepare for the updated FDTL norms.

“They gave airlines a timeline to adjust, but IndiGo made no changes. Winter schedules already suffer delays due to fog, and with the new rules, they simply didn’t have enough pilots. Now they’re asking employees on leave to return because of staff shortages.”

Pilots from other airlines believe the problem goes deeper than FDTL and system updates. “The norms were enforced on everyone. Even if there were issues, it shouldn’t have turned into a nationwide crisis,” one pilot said. Another added, “The situation was extremely mismanaged, it might have been completely avoidable.”

IndiGo pilots said the new FDTL was more suitable for them. “The old FDTL rule was 25 to 30 years old and it catered to the aviation situation of that time, because there was a low frequency of flights and pilots automatically got the required rest. But in today’s scenario those norms weren’t suitable for us, pilots were getting tired and were constantly fatigued. The new FDTL was really great from our perspective but as soon as it was enforced, the crisis happened so they had to roll it back. The company has only now posted vacancies for pilots,” an IndiGo pilot said.

Within the past two days, Pune Airport witnessed the cancellation of 88 flights, leaving thousands stranded, confused and exhausted. Officials from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) say they are working relentlessly to stabilise operations.

“IndiGo is a separate entity and this was a problem with their internal system. Nobody knew the consequences, it became a pan-India crisis,” said Santosh Dhoke, Airport Director. “My team has been working round-the-clock to handle the situation. We resolved cases one by one and planned carefully to ensure no other airline was affected.”