On December 3, Siddhartha Das, a faculty member at IIIT Hyderabad, was flying from Tirupati to Chandigarh via Hyderabad on an IndiGo aircraft.

But a shortage of crew and pilots led to delays across the airline’s operations. By the time the flight from Tirupati reached Hyderabad, his connecting flight had departed. The airlines booked him on an alternate flight but that too kept getting delayed.

After he had spent 12 hours at the airport, Das said the airline crew suggested he cancel the flight. “It was absolutely horrible, passengers were crying and panicking,” he said.

His ordeal did not end after the cancellation. The airlines were unable to trace his bags at the Hyderabad airport.

“I tried calling but the staff said they have 2,000 bags with them and it will take them time to find my bag,” he said. He got his baggage after 10 days.

From December 3 onwards, thousands of passengers like Das suffered inordinate delays, had trips cancelled or entirely missed out on their travel plans because the operations of the country's largest carrier, IndiGo airlines, were derailed by its inability to meet stricter flight duty norms.

But as the airline resumes routine operations, the question for Das and other passengers remains: How do they go about seeking...

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