IndiGo cancels 130 flights today, around 10% of budget carrier's operations; services to normalise from 31 March

Mumbai: Acute shortage of pilots along with NOTAMs at some airports forced IndiGo to cancel around 130 flights for Friday, a source said. NOTAMs or notice to airmen is given to pilots and include information on potential hazards on a flight route. The cancelled flights account for almost 10 percent of the airlines operations, the source said. An Indigo spokesperson, however, said the airline has not cancelled any additional flights other than the schedule cancellations. The Gurugram-based budget carrier operates over 1,300 flights per day with a fleet of 210 planes. The airline has not pulled out any additional flights other than the schedule cancellations but refused to issue a statement. A query sent to IndiGo spokesperson and also to its chief operating officer Wolfgang Prock-Shauer remained unanswered. [caption id=“attachment_5506871” align=“alignleft” width=“300”]  IndiGo Airlines aircraft. Reuters[/caption] The budget carrier has been cancelling flights since last Saturday after rain and hailstorm hit the Delhi-NCR region last week. On Thursday it did not operate as many as 70 flights, citing reasons like planned cancellations and partial closure of the Bengaluru airport due to the Air Show. “As stated earlier, the anticipated cancellations are 30 flights per day. The operations will be completely normalised by the start of the summer schedule from 31 March. “Additionally, a NOTAM in Bangalore started effective today (14 February), which caused additional 40 flight cancellations, rescheduling for which had been completed a month back and passengers were informed and reaccomodated accordingly,” the airline said in its earlier statement. It had cancelled 49 flights on Wednesday as well. “The cancellations on 13 February were caused by several factors like anticipated weather conditions on 14 February and NOTAMS at various airports. This resulted in extended duty times which then made it necessary to re-roster our crew and optimise our operations,” it said in a statement on Wednesday. Further, the airline said it has decided to curtail its schedule for the remaining period of this month by “approximately 30 flights a day”. “This is in order to stabilise its operation and adjust crew rosters due to the reasons mentioned above. Passengers are in the process of being informed and re-accommodated,” the carrier had said.