New Delhi: Hundreds of IndiGo passengers were stranded in Istanbul today with flight services to Delhi impacted for the second time in two days because of technical faults onboard the leased aircraft which the airline deploys on this sector.
At the time of publishing this report, IndiGo was flying in two A321neo aircraft from India to fly out passengers stranded in Istanbul. By the time passengers in Istanbul board these replacement aircraft, they would have spent close to twenty hours on the ground in Istanbul.
In a statement, IndiGo reached out to passengers and said they "sincerely regret the inconvenience caused and appreciate their understanding in this matter."
The previous Istanbul-Delhi flight, scheduled to depart on the 12th of December had also been cancelled because of technical problems. Passengers were subsequently flown to New Delhi after a delay lasting several hours.
Separately, IndiGo's flight between Istanbul and Mumbai scheduled to depart on December 12 was also delayed by several hours.
All the aircraft in question are leased Boeing 777 aircraft which IndiGo uses on the Turkey-India sector. These have high-density seating with each aircraft carrying upwards of 500 passengers. With any delay or cancellation, the number of affected passengers is significant.