IndiGo is facing a major operational crisis, cancelling nearly 900 flights since Tuesday due to staff shortages and new crew regulations. This caused commuting chaos, as many people who had urgent events to attend were left waiting and disappointed at the airports. Medha Kshirsagar and Sangam Das, who got married recently, were two of the passengers who were forced to change their plans after their December 2 IndiGo flight got cancelled. Kshirsagar and Das work as software engineers in Bengaluru, and had tied the knot on November 23 in Odisha's Bhubaneswar. Their family members had planned a wedding reception at the bride's hometown in Hubli and had also made all the arrangement, but all their plans were thwarted after IndiGo cancelled their flight on December 2.
According to the couple, IndiGo had initially rescheduled their flight to December 3, but cancelled it eventually. But even after failing to reach their destination for the reception, the couple came up with a unique idea and decided to attend the event virtually from Bhubaneswar. A video has also gone viral showing the couple virtually attending their reception in Hubli from Bhubaneswar.
"The wedding took place on 23 November, and everything went well. We had planned the reception here for 2 and 3 December and invited everyone for the event. All our relatives had arrived from our hometown. Suddenly, we came to know that their flight had been cancelled. We waited a lot, hoping they might somehow reach," said the mother of the bride."We felt very bad and were really upset. But since we had already invited everyone, we had to manage the situation and ensure everything happened properly. After discussing with everyone, we arranged a screen and held the reception online, where the couple appeared on screen," she added.
The aviation company IndiGo had cancelled over 500 flights on Thursday, i.e., December 4, across major airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Chennai, and Bangladesh. The company had cancelled over 200 flights in the morning time only. The reason for cancellation is the shortage of crew, especially pilots, to operate the flights. It’s also happening due to the recent FDLT (Flight Duty Time Limitations) norms.