Patna: Air passengers in Patna are facing mounting difficulties as disruptions to IndiGo’s flight operations enter a fourth day, triggering flight cancellations, ticket shortages and spiralling fares. Travellers said tickets were being sold at “auction-like” rates across airline counters at Patna Airport, while many routes had no availability at all.
At counters for SpiceJet, Air India and Air India Express, passengers were repeatedly told that seats for major cities — including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai — were unavailable for the next two to three days. Some were offered only high-priced options, often involving long detours.
One passenger said staff at the SpiceJet counter quoted Rs 67,593 for a one-stop flight to Mumbai via Delhi, departing at 9.40pm on Sunday and connecting at 2am. On travel apps, fares were even higher: Goibibo listed a Patna–Mumbai one-stop option at Rs 93,903 for Saturday morning. At the IndiGo counter, passengers were told tickets would only be available after December 9, though online portals still showed availability.
International and leisure travellers reported the worst distress. Many had already spent large sums on international tickets, hotel bookings and tours. Vikas Kumar, a Patna resident, said he had booked a Patna–Mumbai–Germany journey two months ago; with his Mumbai–Germany flight scheduled for 10am on Sunday, any cancellation would mean losing “lakhs of rupees”. Another passenger, Rohit Kumar, said his family holiday to Goa was in jeopardy after the Hyderabad–Goa leg of his journey was cancelled without any alternative offered by IndiGo.
Saturday saw ten IndiGo flights cancelled from Patna, with more than six delayed for several hours. The airport remained largely empty except for a long, unmoving queue at IndiGo’s departure counter, where each rescheduling request took around ten minutes. Frustrated travellers said the airline had failed to arrange additional staff or a separate helpdesk.
Passengers accused airlines of capitalising on the crisis through inflated fares. “There’s no transparency, no support,” one traveller said. “People are stranded, and no one seems prepared to help.”
Airport officials said they are monitoring the situation as disruptions continue nationwide across IndiGo’s network.
