By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 7: Manjuri travelled from Shillong to Guwahati with her husband’s embalmed body in a coffin, booked on an IndiGo flight to Kolkata for the final rites. She reached the airport on time—only to watch every IndiGo flight get cancelled one after another with no prior warning.
“There was no information,” she said, voice breaking. “The boards still showed ‘scheduled,’ but staff kept saying the planes weren’t coming. I can’t take the coffin back to Shillong, and the 48-hour embalming period is almost over. Who will take responsibility for my husband’s body now?”
She had left Shillong believing the flight would operate. Had the airline informed her even six hours earlier, she would never have made the journey.
Manjuri’s nightmare is one among hundreds as IndiGo, India’s largest carrier, reels from a cascade of cancellations triggered by stricter DGCA crew-duty rules, scheduling failures, and manpower shortages. Over the past week, airports in India have seen over 2,000 domestic and international flights cancelled daily, almost with zero notice.
At Guwahati alone, scores of IndiGo services were grounded, leaving passengers furious and helpless. Display screens showed flights “on time” while ground staff delivered verbal cancellations. Security had to be deployed as crowds swelled and tempers flared.
For families transporting human remains—an already heart-wrenching process—the sudden meltdown has been devastating. Manjuri stood stranded for hours, coffin beside her, pleading for answers that never came.
“If this can happen to a dead body,” she said, “imagine what others are going through.”
Regulators have slapped notices on IndiGo’s leadership and capped fares on affected routes, but for Manjuri and countless others, the damage is already done.
For Manjuri, the sudden halt of flights has turned grief into a logistical nightmare, one she said no family should be forced to endure.
