Kolkata

KOLKATA :Kolkata with the airline continues to disrupt and cancelling 28 departures and 31 arrivals of IndiGo flights, which had been cancelled last friday due to the hailstrom. Sources said the low-cost carrier was struggling with rostering of pilots in the aftermath of the hailstorm that had thrown flights and crew schedules haywire.  

Sources said the airline had encountered the problem following the unpredicted hailstorm last Saturday that forced the diversion of several flights and caused huge delays, affecting its crew schedules. Pilots that have strict flight duty time limitations have had to be rested, leading to the crisis.

The maximum cancellations has been to southern cities Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru with cancellation of 15 flights to and from these cities. Nearly a fourth of the flights cancelled nationally were from Kolkata.  

According to industry insiders, though the airline has been expanding rapidly and adding planes to its fleet, it has been unable to match that with adequate pilot recruitments. There is a shortage of pilots in the country. So even if IndiGo wants to recruit pilots, there aren´t any available right now, a veteran pilot said, adding the carrier needed at least 100 more pilots to sort out its schedules.