On Wednesday, a group of passengers at Delhi airport expressed their frustration by shouting slogans against the domestic carrier IndiGo after their flight was reportedly cancelled. In a video shared by news agency ANI, the passengers can be heard chanting “band karo, band karo” (stop it) following the cancellation of their flight from Delhi to Jharkhand’s Deoghar. Flightradar24, a flight tracking website, indicated that over 10 flights were cancelled, and more than 50 flights faced delays at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport due to dense fog and adverse weather conditions.
#WATCH | Passengers of Delhi-Deoghar IndiGo flight raise slogans and protest against the airline after it cancels the flight originating from Terminal 2 of Delhi airport pic.twitter.com/L8Nj1cW4Vq
— ANI (@ANI) January 31, 2024
Earlier in the day, IndiGo issued an advisory, stating that flight operations in Delhi, Srinagar, and Chandigarh were likely to be impacted due to inclement weather. The airline urged passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
IndiGo had recently incurred a fine of ₹1.2 crore for five violations after passengers were observed eating on the tarmac while waiting for their flight to take off. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) termed this act a “violation of apron discipline” and noted, “It came to the notice of the DGCA through social media that on January 15, passengers of two IndiGo flights were on the apron for a considerable period at the CSMI Airport, Mumbai (MIAL). This violates Para 5 of DGCA Air Safety circular 04 of 2007 which directs all agencies working at the airport not to permit walking on an active apron. The presence of passengers on the apron for a considerable period violates apron discipline as it jeopardised the safety of the passengers and the aircraft.” IndiGo was instructed to pay the penalty, the highest imposed on airlines in recent times, within 30 days.