Flight disruptions have once again gripped India’s busy aviation network, with IndiGo, Akasa Air, and SpiceJet cancelling more than a dozen flights across major hubs including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad. The latest wave of cancellations has left passengers scrambling for alternatives, facing long queues, soaring last minute fares, and uncertainty over when normal schedules will be fully restored. As authorities press airlines for answers and corrective measures, travelers are being urged to prepare for short notice changes and to understand their rights in cases of delays and cancellations.
What Is Happening Across India’s Major Airports
In recent days, a series of targeted cancellations by IndiGo, Akasa Air, and SpiceJet has disrupted both metro to metro routes and important regional links. While the absolute number of flights scrapped on a given day may appear modest compared with the total domestic schedule, the concentration of cancellations on high demand routes such as Delhi to Mumbai, Mumbai to Bengaluru, and connections from Ahmedabad, Chennai, and Kolkata has had a disproportionate impact on passengers. Many affected flights were scheduled during peak morning and evening travel windows when aircraft are typically full and rebooking options are most limited.
Travelers have reported reaching airports to find flights cancelled with little advance notice, queues at check in counters stretching across terminals, and airline staff struggling to rebook large numbers of passengers onto already crowded services. At some airports, departure boards have shown clusters of cancellations next to particular carriers, while competing airlines have seen a surge in last minute bookings. The outcome has been a domino effect: one cancelled flight at a hub can disrupt onward connections to smaller cities, forcing passengers to rearrange entire itineraries.
Although weather disturbances and routine operational issues are familiar features of Indian aviation, the current pattern is more complex. The cancellations come against the backdrop of a broader scheduling and crew management crisis that hit IndiGo in late 2025 and spilled into 2026, as well as congestion related constraints at Mumbai and pressure on capacity in several fast growing city pairs. With multiple carriers now trimming or cancelling flights on specific sectors, the system has become less resilient to even minor shocks.
IndiGo: From Scheduling Crisis to Ongoing Disruptions
IndiGo, India’s largest airline by market share, remains at the center of the country’s recent travel turmoil. The carrier has already faced intense scrutiny since December 2025, when its failure to align schedules with new flight duty time limitations for crew triggered a major operational breakdown and thousands of cancellations over a matter of days. Regulators stepped in with temporary relaxations and ordered a detailed probe, but also curtailed some operations and demanded that passenger refunds and rebooking obligations be met in full.
While IndiGo has since restored the majority of its network, the airline continues to operate under tight crew and schedule constraints. Short notice cancellations at busy airports such as Delhi, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad indicate that the margin for error remains slim. Even a small imbalance in crew availability, aircraft rotations, or maintenance slots can force last minute cuts to flying programs, particularly on routes with dense schedules where aircraft cycles are most intense.
Recent cancellations at Ahmedabad, for example, have hit multiple IndiGo flights serving Delhi, Mumbai, Goa, Pune, and Srinagar, leaving business travelers and holidaymakers stranded and prompting a wave of complaints at the airport. Similar patterns have been observed in other cities, where the airline has had to selectively prune services for the day to prevent knock on delays worsening across its network. IndiGo has maintained that it is working to stabilize operations and align its schedules with the latest regulatory norms, but has not provided a fixed timeline by which disruptions will entirely cease.
For travelers, this means that while most IndiGo flights continue to operate as planned, there is a higher than usual risk of cancellations on certain routes and times of day. Passengers relying on IndiGo for tight domestic to international connections or critical business trips should factor in additional buffer and keep a close eye on flight status updates in the 24 hours prior to departure.
Akasa Air and SpiceJet: Targeted Cuts and Capacity Pressures
Akasa Air and SpiceJet, though smaller than IndiGo, have also contributed to the latest spell of disruptions, primarily through targeted cancellations and capacity rationalization on select routes. Akasa Air has been under pressure at Mumbai, an airport grappling with chronic congestion, limited slots, and regulatory moves to reduce runway load. In response to directives aimed at easing congestion, the airline has been trimming frequencies on key sectors such as Mumbai to Bengaluru, cancelling multiple daily services over a defined period to keep overall traffic within mandated limits.
These adjustments, while operationally rational for the carrier and consistent with government guidance, have translated into fewer choices for passengers on some of the country’s busiest city pairs. When a growing carrier like Akasa pulls back flights, the remaining seats on competitors often fill quickly, pushing up fares and leaving short notice travelers with limited, expensive options. For regular commuters on routes like Mumbai to Bengaluru, where same day returns and early morning departures are crucial, even a small reduction in daily flights can have a noticeable impact.
SpiceJet, meanwhile, has long operated under financial and fleet constraints and has historically shown a higher rate of cancellations than some rivals. Although its overall share of the domestic market is smaller, cancellations on SpiceJet flights serving metro and regional routes add another layer of complexity for travelers trying to piece together multi leg itineraries. Reports of last minute flight scrubs, extended delays, and rebooking challenges on certain routes have persisted, underscoring the vulnerability of passengers who rely on a single carrier for onward connectivity.
The combined effect of these moves by Akasa Air and SpiceJet is to tighten available capacity in an already busy domestic market. As IndiGo grapples with its own scheduling and crew issues, the absence of spare capacity from competitors means fewer back up options when things go wrong, especially at short notice or during peak holiday and business travel periods.
Cities Most Affected: Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Beyond
The brunt of the current disruptions is being felt across India’s largest aviation hubs, where dense schedules and high passenger volumes leave little room for error. Delhi and Mumbai, as the country’s primary international gateways and domestic transfer points, have seen some of the most visible impacts. Cancellations and delays at these airports can strand travelers connecting from secondary cities, or force them into lengthy and costly rerouting via alternative hubs.
Bengaluru and Chennai, both crucial technology and business centers with heavy weekday demand, have also faced a series of cancellations on key domestic routes. Passengers have described situations where multiple flights to the same metro destination were cancelled within hours, leaving few or no same day alternatives. In Bengaluru’s case, disruptions have been particularly challenging for those with onward international departures in the evening or at night, as missing a domestic feeder flight can jeopardize entire overseas trips.
Kolkata and Ahmedabad have not been spared either. Ahmedabad, in particular, has emerged as a focal point for recent IndiGo disruptions, with a long list of cancelled flights affecting services to Delhi, Mumbai, Srinagar, Goa, and Pune, among others. Business travelers flying in and out of the city have reported missed meetings, aborted day trips, and the need to switch to overnight journeys or even to rail in order to salvage their plans.
Beyond these marquee hubs, ripple effects have been felt in secondary cities such as Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, and other regional centers linked by point to point services. When flights from metros are cancelled, aircraft and crew do not arrive as planned at these smaller airports, triggering secondary cancellations or heavy delays. This cascading effect is typical in tightly scheduled networks and is particularly disruptive in regions where alternative connections are infrequent.
The Role of Regulation, Crew Rules, and Airport Congestion
Behind the immediate inconvenience of cancelled flights lies a deeper structural story about India’s fast growing but capacity constrained aviation sector. One of the principal factors in the recent wave of IndiGo disruptions is the implementation of new Flight Duty Time Limitation norms, which tighten requirements for crew rest, expand the definition of night duty, and limit the number of landings during night operations. These rules are designed to prioritize safety and reduce fatigue among pilots and cabin crew, but they also require airlines to deploy more crew to maintain the same schedule.
IndiGo’s December 2025 scheduling crisis emerged from an apparent failure to adequately reconfigure timetables, crew rosters, and recruitment pipelines to meet the new norms in time. Although the regulator later granted temporary relaxations to ease the transition, the episode exposed how vulnerable even large, well established carriers can be when regulatory changes collide with aggressive growth and tight scheduling.
At the same time, chronic congestion at major airports, especially Mumbai and to a lesser degree Delhi, has forced authorities to cap scheduled movements and push operators to rationalize networks. The directive for airlines to cut back some services at Mumbai has directly influenced Akasa Air’s decision to cancel specific daily flights between Mumbai and Bengaluru over a multi week period. Similar constraints can emerge when runway works, airspace restrictions, or seasonal weather patterns limit effective capacity at major airports.
Operational factors such as aircraft maintenance, technical glitches, and localized staff shortages further compound these pressures. While each individual cancellation might be triggered by a specific issue, the broader pattern across multiple airlines and airports indicates a system stretched near its limits, where there is not enough spare capacity in aircraft, crew, or airport slots to absorb disruptions without significant passenger impact.
How These Disruptions Are Hitting Passengers on the Ground
For travelers, the consequences of this convergence of regulatory, operational, and capacity pressures are deeply personal. Accounts from airports across India describe passengers waiting for hours to receive clarity on whether their flights will depart, scrambling to book last minute alternatives at sharply higher fares, and in some cases missing international connections, visa appointments, medical consultations, and family events. Elderly travelers, families with young children, and those unfamiliar with digital booking tools often find themselves at a particular disadvantage.
Dynamic pricing, a standard feature of modern airline revenue management, can make matters worse in periods of disruption. When a flight is cancelled and hundreds of passengers suddenly try to rebook on a small number of remaining services operated by other carriers, algorithm driven fare systems rapidly escalate prices. Reports from recent disruptions include examples of one way domestic fares on competing airlines spiking to several times their usual level within hours of widespread cancellations on a route.
Passengers also face uncertainty over refunds and compensation. While Indian regulations require airlines to offer refunds or free rebooking in cases of cancellations attributable to the carrier, the experience on the ground is uneven. Some travelers report prompt automatic refunds and clear communication through mobile apps and email, while others say they have had to chase airlines for days or weeks to recover funds or obtain written confirmation of disrupted itineraries. In crowded terminals where customer service counters are overwhelmed, it can be difficult to obtain consistent information about available options.
For those with complex itineraries involving domestic to international connections booked on separate tickets, the stakes are even higher. Missing a long haul flight because a domestic feeder service was cancelled can lead to substantial additional costs for rebooking, accommodation, and reissued visas or travel documents. Insurance coverage varies and not all policies treat airline operational cancellations in the same way, leaving some passengers responsible for large unplanned expenses.
What Travelers Can Do Right Now
Although passengers cannot control airline scheduling or regulatory changes, there are practical steps that can reduce the risk of being caught off guard by cancellations in the current environment. For travel over the coming weeks, especially on routes known to be affected such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad, it is wise to monitor flight status closely from 24 hours before departure and to check for schedule changes in airline apps or on boarding passes issued after online check in.
Where possible, travelers should build extra buffer time into itineraries that rely on tight domestic to international connections or critical appointments at the destination. Opting for earlier flights in the day rather than last departures, particularly on busy business routes, can provide more fallback options if a cancellation occurs. Booking on a single ticket for multi sector trips, especially when an international sector is involved, can also strengthen a passenger’s rights to rebooking and assistance, as the airline operating the through ticket is obligated to find viable alternatives.
Passengers should familiarize themselves with the compensation and refund policies of the airlines they are using, including entitlements in cases of cancellations due to carrier controlled reasons versus extraordinary circumstances such as severe weather. Keeping digital and printed copies of tickets, receipts, and any written communication from airlines can help speed up claims and disputes later. Where travel insurance is in place, reviewing the fine print around trip interruption and missed connection coverage before departure can clarify what is and is not covered.
At the airport, asserting one’s rights calmly but firmly can make a difference. If a flight is cancelled, passengers are generally entitled to either a refund or a rebooking at no additional fare difference on the next available flight operated by the same airline. In some circumstances, particularly for long delays or overnight disruptions caused by the carrier, travelers may also qualify for meals, hotel accommodation, or ground transport, though policies differ by airline and situation.
What to Expect Next for India’s Domestic Aviation
Looking ahead, the current wave of cancellations involving IndiGo, Akasa Air, and SpiceJet highlights the urgent need for more resilient planning across India’s aviation system. Airlines are likely to continue fine tuning schedules, staffing models, and fleet deployment to comply with updated crew duty rules while still meeting surging demand for air travel. In the near term, this may involve further targeted cancellations or frequency reductions on certain routes as carriers attempt to match capacity with realistic operational capabilities.
Regulators and the Ministry of Civil Aviation are expected to maintain pressure on airlines to improve contingency planning, communication with passengers, and the timely processing of refunds and compensation. Investigations into the root causes of recent crises at IndiGo and other carriers could lead to more prescriptive guidelines on schedule planning relative to crew and aircraft availability, as well as tighter monitoring of punctuality and cancellations across the sector.
Airport operators at heavily used hubs such as Delhi and Mumbai are also under scrutiny, with ongoing debates about how best to balance slot allocations, maintain safety and punctuality, and create room for new entrants and route expansions. Investments in new infrastructure, airspace optimization, and technology to speed up ground handling will be critical if India’s domestic aviation market is to continue growing without repeated episodes of systemic disruption.
For travelers in the immediate future, the key takeaway is caution and preparedness. While most flights will continue to operate, the elevated risk of cancellations on certain routes and carriers means that flexible planning and awareness of passenger rights are more important than ever. Until airlines and regulators fully address the underlying structural issues driving these disruptions, passengers flying with IndiGo, Akasa Air, and SpiceJet in and out of major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad should stay alert, build in extra time, and be ready with backup plans when they travel.