Tempers flare, pilot assaulted as ‘severe’ India smog sparks travel chaos in Delhi

IndiGo, the country’s biggest airline that operates more than 2,000 daily flights, has been the worst affected. On Monday, 78 per cent of the airline’s flights – known for their punctuality – were delayed, according to data from the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Almost four-fifths of Air India’s flights failed to arrive or depart on time on Saturday.

Tempers have boiled over. After a 13-hour delay, one frustrated passenger assaulted an IndiGo pilot in a video circulating widely on social media since Monday.

“The passenger hit the pilot while he was announcing the flight delay around 1pm,” a Delhi police spokesperson said.

In another incident, travellers en route from Delhi to Goa were seen apparently sitting on the airport’s tarmac having dinner near a plane after their flight was diverted to Mumbai.

The flight chaos is yet another impact of northern India’s toxic air, which heightens in the cool and often foggy winter months as farmers burn rice stubble from their fields.

Deemed “severe” around New Delhi on Tuesday by the Central Pollution Control Board, the annual smog has been flagged for years as a major public-health catastrophe, though little coordinated action has been taken by authorities to clear up the foul atmosphere.

The country’s civil aviation ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that it issued notices to IndiGo and Mumbai’s airport for failing to follow security procedures and report the incident. If they didn’t respond on Tuesday, the ministry said it would impose financial penalties.

‘Really bad’: toxic smog chokes India’s Delhi amid fears of health disaster

The aircraft was parked on a remote bay that “added to passenger woes and deprived them the opportunity to avail basic facilities like restrooms and refreshments at the terminal”, according to the ministry.

“Passengers were irate and rushed out of the aircraft as soon as the stepladder was connected,” Mumbai airport said in a statement. The passengers were cordoned off and kept under “strict watch” in a “safety zone” as they refused to go by bus to the terminal building, according to the airport.

Rooms would be set up at busy metro airports to address issues related to passenger inconvenience, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said Tuesday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Airports would be required to report incidents three times a day, Scindia said.

IndiGo said it had initiated an inquiry and would respond to the notice. Air India did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its delays.

The country’s aviation regulator on Monday said airlines should cancel flights in advance if they expected delays to stretch more than three hours, in order to prevent airport congestion.

Airlines were also asked to give real-time updates about delays through text messages or emails, and to sensitise staff so they could properly guide travellers during disruptions.