IndiGo fiasco: ₹21 lakh gone as Goa destination wedding gets postponed — 'Made a total mess', says Indian entrepreneur

IndiGo flight cancellations over the past two days have sparked chaos, leaving hundreds of passengers travelling for weddings and business in the lurch. Fintrekk Capital founder Amit Kumar Gupta detailed how a distant relative’s destination wedding had to be postponed amid the ongoing IndiGo crisis. Speaking to Livemint, Gupta said that 48 guests were booked to travel from Delhi to Goa on the same IndiGo flight, which was repeatedly delayed and eventually cancelled, derailing the family’s wedding plans.

With most peak-season bookings in Goa being non-refundable, the family received only a credit note valid for the next 24 months. “The wedding has now been shifted to the NCR next month due to the lack of available venues in December,” Gupta said.

He further said that the family had booked a 5-star hotel for four nights—from 4 to 7 December —at roughly ₹35,000 per night, and had also paid ₹15–20 lakh in event management fees. This pushed the total loss to an estimated ₹16.4–21.4 lakh.

Calling the situation “astonishing”, Gupta criticised IndiGo for failing to anticipate the disruption or alert passengers in advance. He also expressed displeasure over what he termed a “useless inquiry” by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), arguing it would do little to reduce the “major losses of time, money, and energy” faced by thousands of travellers.

Gupta urged the government to step in immediately, impose strict penalties on IndiGo’s management, and hand over operations to an independent professional team, alleging the current leadership has “made a total mess of the travel experience”. He further warned that IndiGo’s widespread operational cuts could affect even non-travellers in the coming weeks, as reduced flight slots may push fares sharply higher.

“This will impact everyone in the near term. Even those who don't have a booked flight but are planning to take one in the next few months. Slots will be cut, prices for existing flights will go up. An Indigo return flight I booked on Black Friday for March'26 vacation is now quoting at ~2x after just one week,” he wrote.

Here's how social media users reacted:

The post has amassed a variety of reactions on social media. Here’s how people responded:

One user attempted to offer a positive perspective, writing: “What if the flight had crashed! Marriage is only postponed; not cancelled. Consider all things happened for the family's good. IndiGo and others aren't doing well. That doesn't mean you should lose cool and patience. Marriage requires lifelong patience and cool attitude. It's a check on our response, an opportunity to know how we respond to the reactions for no fault of ours. Being patient in times of their crises is a much more mature response.

“I wish the best for the new couple. Things would take off for them really beautiful because they are programmed to be the best. External Disruptions shouldn't distort their thinking or resilience. They are built to last; IndiGo isn't! All the best.”

To this, Gupta replied: “Hope you know that in peak season, everything in Goa is non refundable.”

Another user, Pratik Agarwal, wrote: “I was travelling with my family and got to know that flight is cancelled juz 3 hours before the flight departure time. Nobody is picking up phone and they are not allowing refund also as the link shared by them is not working.”

Echoing similar sentiments, a user named Ratan Mehta wrote: “My son wedding was on 6th and they cancel flight from Bangalore to Jodhpur on 4th. We paid 20-30k for another flight and many guest not even able to gets tickets. These idiot must be punished for the an artificial problem created by them. They have knowledge of the problem (sic).”

Gupta responded: “Unfortunately in that case rebooking other flights was also extremely risky. The turnaround time was less than 24 hours and the situation is not going to improve in the next 7 days at least.”

Latest on the IndiGo crises

The airline has informed the DGCA that it expects operations to stabilise by 10 February and has sought temporary relaxation of rules restricting pilots’ night-time duty hours. After meeting IndiGo officials, the DGCA said the disruptions stemmed from planning errors and miscalculations made during the rollout of Phase 2 of the new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) for crew. IndiGo admitted that its actual requirement for crew was higher than originally planned. On Thursday, the airline issued a “heartfelt apology” to passengers and industry partners, assuring them that it is working urgently to restore normal services across its network.