As IndiGo battles widespread flight cancellations that have thrown travel plans into disarray nationwide, actor and aviation enthusiast Gul Panag feels that the real issue of airline safety and pilot fatigue has got lost amid the “narrative of chaos”.
Gul Panag raises concerns
Gul took to social media X, formerly known as Twitter, to share her views amid the growing disruptions around flight cancellations by IndiGo.
“While empathy for the pressure on crew and operations during this regulatory transition is essential , a NARRATIVE of chaos should NOT overshadow the intent behind the updated fatigue and safety norms — which ultimately exist to protect both passengers and crew,” Gul wrote in the tweet.
She continued, “Operational challenges during a change of this scale are real, and @IndiGo6E’s situation reflects the complexity of implementing such reforms across a large network. Wishing them strength, clarity & integrity-as they navigate this transition.”
To this, one social media user wrote, “Come on man, they had more then year to get it corrected. Instead they created hostage situation and blackmailed govt. Very shameful incident this is.”
Gul agreed to this, and responded, “Of course! Narrative of chaos.”
In another tweet, Gul shared, “Interesting how the narrative has been moved from safety and fatigue – to chaos, refunds and high fares. The real issue — updated FDTL norms designed to protect lives — has been pushed to the back burner. We’ll know in February now if the ‘abeyance’ will continue further.”
About IndiGo crisis
IndiGo has been in the midst of an “operational crisis”, as termed by the airline, over the past few days, with well over 1,000 flight cancellations in a single day on Friday.
With the carrier struggling with getting its flights airborne, scenes of chaos unfolded across airports in the country, after cancellations hit major hubs including Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The airline, India’s largest, has attributed the crisis to a “multitude of unforeseen operational challenges”, also citing minor tech glitches, winter schedule changes and the weather.
The airline apologised for the inconvenience to passengers through a post on social media. “While this will not get resolved overnight, we assure you that we will do everything in our capacity to help you in the meantime and to bring our operations back to normal at the earliest,” IndiGo said in the statement. The airline will be giving passengers a “full waiver” on all cancellations and rescheduling requests of bookings between December 5,2025 and December 15, 2025.
Over 300 flights have been cancelled on Sunday as IndiGo continues to face operational disruptions for a sixth straight day. On Sunday, 115 flights were cancelled at Hyderabad airport, 112 at Mumbai airport, 109 in Delhi, 38 in Chennai and 11 in Amritsar. Since Tuesday, IndiGo has cancelled more than 2,000 flights and delayed many others while leaving passengers stranded at the airports.
