IndiGo cancels 16 flights from Mumbai on Thursday

The country's largest domestic carrier, IndiGo, on Thursday said that it has cancelled as many as 16 flights from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) due to incessant rains that disrupted airport operations in the maximum city.

The airline, which on 4 September left several passengers stranded for hours inside its aircraft at the Mumbai airport due to lack of manpower, will also be probed by the civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), an official from the agency told Mint.

"There were a total of 12 domestic departures from BOM (Mumbai) that were cancelled out of 138 scheduled flights on the 4th (4 September) and an additional 16 domestic departures out of 138 scheduled flights on the 5th (5 September). No international flights were cancelled," IndiGo said in a statement.

"IndiGo took all measures to minimize the cancellations on these two days. This included sending staff of different categories from other stations to BOM (Mumbai), accommodating these staff members in nearby hotels," the airline added.

Interestingly, the airline had on Thursday morning said that situation at the Mumbai airport has been largely normalized and operations resumed as per schedule, after the heavy rainfall subsided in the city.

On 4 September, several passengers, mostly awaiting their IndiGo flights, were made to wait hours at the Mumbai airport, as heavy rains continued to lash Mumbai for the second consecutive day. Operations of other airlines were affected as well but not in the same quantum as that of the country's largest domestic carrier.

It appeared that the airline staff were ill prepared to handle such situation at one of the busiest airports in the country as many passengers were made to wait inside aircraft for hours.

Subsequently, IndiGo issued a statement saying that owing to the non-stop heavy rains, water logging of roads and the subsequent traffic jams, the ground support staff, cabin crew and pilots could not reach the airport on time leading to passengers being stranded at the terminal and inside the aircraft.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson of Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL), which operates the city's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), didn't share the total number of flights cancelled, delayed or diverted at the airport on Thursday.