Indian airports face major disruptions as IndiGo grapples with pilot shortages, sources say

By Jayshree P Upadhyay, Abhijith Ganapavaram and Dhwani Pandya

NEW DELHI, Dec 3 (Reuters) - At least 150 flights operated by India's biggest airline IndiGo INGL.NS were cancelled and dozens of others delayed on Wednesday, airport sources said, leaving thousands of travellers stranded and social media awash with complaints.

According to three airport sources and an IndiGo pilot, the carrier is facing a shortage of pilots after new government rules to combat fatigue and boost rest periods for pilots kicked in on July 1 and November 1, complicating roster management.

In a statement, IndiGo said its operations have been "significantly disrupted" for the past two days, citing unforeseen issues including adverse weather conditions and increased congestion as well as the implementation of updated crew rostering rules by the Indian government.

That has led to long delays at major airports in the Indian cities of New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, with a Reuters correspondent inside Delhi airport witnessing scenes of chaos at IndiGo counters, with passenger anger mounting.

"The 6pm flight is delayed by two hours, and even that gate has changed four times," said Rakesh Bhanushali, a chartered accountant from Mumbai, who had been due to fly on Tuesday.

"We are relying on staff completely. Staff are cooperating, but are frankly saying they are not aware what's happening."

A spokesperson for the airport in Bengaluru said 62 IndiGo flights had been cancelled on Wednesday.

INDIAN GOVERNMENT HOPING TO BUILD AVIATION SECTOR

India has been banking on a boom in aviation to support wider development goals, but the latest disruptions throw a spotlight on the challenges facing its government in balancing airline interests with pilot welfare.

They also follow an outage at Delhi airport which delayed hundreds of flights last month.

It was not immediately clear why the larger impact of the rules change was being felt only this week.

A combination of factors "had a negative compounding impact on our operations in a way that was not feasible to be anticipated", the airline said.

IndiGo, which has a domestic market share of more than 60%, operates over 2,200 flights daily and has been steadily expanding internationally, challenging rival Air India's dominance.

India's civil aviation ministry did not respond to Reuters queries.

IndiGo had an on-time performance of just 35% on Tuesday, according to government data, the lowest of all Indian airlines. Its on-time performance this year has typically been above 80% at major Indian airports.