Why did over 900 IndiGo flights get rescheduled on Saturday?  

Air India officials have denied holding any interviews on Saturday but is there may be a different reason behind a large number of IndiGo flights getting rescheduled over the weekend, say industry insiders 

More than half of IndiGo flights were delayed on Saturday after a large number of inflight crew reported sick. As a result, around 55 per cent of the total flights operated by the country’s largest airline were impacted on July 2, said Ministry of Civil Aviation data. 

The delays occured after many IndiGo crew members allegedly took leave from work in order to be appear for walk-in interviews being conducted by Air India for similar roles, sources had earlier told Business Today. 

The rush to get a job with the national flag carrier had ostensibly resulted in the rescheduling of more than 900 IndiGo flights as the day ended, it was claimed. The low-cost carrier (LCC) operates 1,600 flights daily. 

However, late on Sunday evening Air India officials specifically denied that its recruitment exercise had anything to do with the large-scale rescheduling witnessed at the airline. 

“We did conduct cabin crew interviews in Mumbai on Thursday and Friday. But insinuating that they played a role in the alleged mass leave at IndiGo on Saturday is premature and erroneous,” the officials told BT. 

They further clarified that there were no plans to poach staff from competitor airlines as some of the reports seem to have suggested. 

Operations were also affected on Sunday. 

Although IndiGo’s on time performance (OTP) of 71.8 per cent was relatively better on Sunday, it lagged behind that of Go First (97.0 per cent), AirAsia India (95.6 per cent), Vistara (93.3 per cent) and SpiceJet (90.1 per cent). That showed that normal operations continued to be affected for a second day. 

Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief Arun Kumar told BT that they had sought a clarification from the airline. “We are looking into the matter and will be able to confirm anything only after we have more details,” he surmised. 

Messages sent to IndiGo for a comment on the issue went unanswered. 

Of late, there have been rumblings of staff discontentment at IndiGo, which is one of the most successful airlines to have emerged out of the country following the low-cost boom of the mid-2000s. Senior aviation industry sources attributed weekend delays to the first signs of industrial action at the carrier. 

Independent inquiries revealed that IndiGo’s inflight crew from several important centres including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad had indeed skipped work on Saturday leading to widespread disruptions. 

BT is closely tracking the story and will file a fresh report once new details emerge.