Srinagar, Dec 8 (IANS) Disruption in IndiGo Airlines’ services on Monday adversely affected flight operations at Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar international airport as 16 flights of the airline were cancelled.

“Air traffic at Srinagar International Airport witnessed continued disruptions on Monday early morning after multiple Indigo flights were cancelled. Out of the total 64 scheduled flight movements (32 arrivals and 32 departures), IndiGo had 36 movements planned for the day. However, 16 IndiGo flights (8 arrivals and 8 departures) were cancelled due to operational reasons until 8 a.m. today,” officials at the airport said.

They also said that no cancellations were reported from any other airline. “Flight operations for the remaining scheduled services are continuing normally,” the officials at the airport added.

Hundreds of flyers on IndiGo flights have been left clueless about the disruption and possible restoration of the budget carrier’s operations.

An unprecedented number of over 1,000 IndiGo flights were cancelled on Friday.

While reports suggest that IndiGo flights were impacted due to the new rules limiting pilots’ duty hours, IndiGo management has blamed a multitude of unforeseen operational challenges, including minor tech glitches, winter schedule changes, congestion, and weather, for the chaos.

IndiGo management said the disruption is temporary and operations will normalise by December 10.

”IndiGo is optimistic to improve services and operate 1,650 flights today after nearly 1,500 flights on the previous day,” IndiGo officials said.

After six consecutive days of mammoth cancellations and operational hiccups, IndiGo saw some recovery with the number of cancellations coming down on Monday.

A senior official of the airline said that IndiGo will carry out a ’root cause analysis into reasons responsible for causing flight disruption’.

The DGCA has already issued a show cause notice to CEO Pieter Elbers seeking an explanation within 24 hours of the receipt of the notice.

In its notice, the DGCA stated that Elbers failed in his duty to ensure timely arrangements for the conduct of reliable operations and the availability of requisite facilities to the passengers.

–IANS

sq/dpb