Mumbai

Thousands of passengers were hit by major IndiGo flight delays on Friday — among them filmmaker Kiran Rao, whose international trip to Tokyo was thrown off course after repeated cancellations and lack of clarity from the airline.

Rao revealed she had already spent more than 11 hours since leaving home and should have reached Japan by then. Instead, she remained stuck inside Mumbai Airport’s Terminal 2, waiting without a confirmed update from IndiGo.

Taking to Instagram, Rao expressed her frustration — but with humour. Sharing a sarcastic take on her situation, she wrote:

“By now (11 hours since I left home) I should’ve reached Tokyo, but it was nice to get to know Mumbai T2 really well, thanks to IndiGo. And now I’m checking on how Delhi is doing with GRAP II. Good day, all in all.”

Her post struck a chord with users online, as many fellow travellers shared similar experiences of delays and slow communication from the airline.

Responding to mounting criticism on social media, IndiGo issued a public apology, confirming that all domestic departures from Delhi Airport (DEL) on December 5, 2025, were cancelled due to severe operational challenges.

In its statement, IndiGo said:

“To each one of our customers — We are truly sorry and will take care. We deeply apologise and understand how difficult the past few days have been for many of you… we assure you that we will do everything in our capacity to bring our operations back to normal at the earliest.”

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Amid continuing disruptions, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered the formation of a high-level, four-member committee to conduct a full review of the factors that led to the widespread breakdown in IndiGo’s operations in recent days.