Post hailstorm, IndiGo operations remain affected

Ever since a hailstorm lashed the national capital and surrounding areas days ago, budget carrier IndiGo has been rescheduling and cancelling flights, including during the weekend. Industry insiders say that the airline's operations were also impacted due to shortage of crew on account of flight and duty time limitation (FDTL), which mandates a maximum of eight hours.

Since delays or diversions led to a cascading impact throughout airline's network, some estimates put the number of flights cancelled during the weekend at around 50. On Sunday, the airline said that the recent hailstorm in north India led to a disruption in its operations during the weekend.

"Due to a severe hailstorm in north India on Friday, February 7, 2019, 11 IndiGo flights were diverted. Consequently, this disrupted operations across our network the following day," the company said in a statement. "As part of recovering our schedule, positioning of the crew and aircraft had to be readjusted. As a result, a number of flights were cancelled."

At present, IndiGo, with its fleet of over 200 aircraft, offers over 1,300 daily flights and connects 52 domestic and 16 international destinations.