FOR passengers simply trying to get home, start a holiday or make an important journey, booking a flight should be one of the easiest parts of travelling. But for some IndiGo customers, even securing a ticket became difficult again on Friday (21) after the airline’s reservation system suffered intermittent problems for the second time this week.
India’s largest airline said its systems were restored after hours of disruption. But the repeated failures have added to the uncertainty facing passengers and created an early challenge for chief executive Willie Walsh, who took charge on August 3.
Earlier on Friday, IndiGo’s website carried an advisory citing “intermittent issues” with its core reservation platform, the same wording used by the airline on Wednesday (19).
Reuters journalists in four Indian cities were unable to book tickets through the website, which returned a “no data available” message when they searched for flights. Some were also unable to log in to the app.
Passengers took to IndiGo’s X account to report failed bookings, difficulties completing web check-ins and problems with payment confirmations.
The disruption comes less than a year after IndiGo suffered a much larger operational crisis. In December, pilot rostering problems forced the airline to cancel around 4,500 flights, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded and causing widespread disruption to travel across India.
The latest problems are therefore likely to bring back difficult memories for travellers who were caught up in that chaos.
It was not immediately clear whether Friday’s issues were connected to Wednesday’s disruption or whether the earlier problem had been fully resolved. IndiGo did not respond to a Reuters email seeking more details.
The repeated glitches also come at a sensitive time for Walsh, the former chief executive of British Airways owner IAG, who became IndiGo’s CEO earlier this month. His predecessor, Pieter Elbers, resigned less than five months earlier after scrutiny following the major operational breakdown.
Despite the disruption, IndiGo remains by far the biggest player in India’s domestic aviation market, with a 67 per cent share in July.
