IndiGo passengers are facing lengthy queues at check-in desks and baggage drops as the Indian carrier grapples with a system outage. The system glitch hit just after noon on Saturday and has left some travelers stranded at airports unable to board their flights.

IndiGo system outage

According to a statement from the airline, a “temporary system slowdown” across its network has impacted its website and booking system, leaving passengers facing long queues at the airport. The system issue has particularly affected the airline’s check-in and baggage drop desks – while IndiGo was able to somewhat restore its operations fairly quickly, its systems are still lagging, leaving customers across the country in the lurch.

Various IndiGo airplanes parked at an airport.

Photo: Airbus

Passengers have uploaded images to social media showing the extent of the airport chaos. IndiGo has in some cases resorted to handing out handwritten boarding passes to passengers. Additionally, many customers have been unable to purchase flights as the airline’s booking systems struggle.

IndiGo is India’s largest airline by a considerable distance, currently holding a market share of around 60%, well ahead of the county’s flag carrier Air India, which has a 14-15% market share. IndiGo operates over 2,000 flights a day to more than 120 destinations across its extensive network.

An Airbus A320 Aircraft of Indigo airlines landing at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport

Photo: ANAND G IYER | Shutterstock

While most of its routes are domestic, the carrier also flies to over 30 international destinations. Additionally, due to its codeshare partnerships with the likes of American Airlines, British Airways, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines, customers are able to access more than 80 international destinations.

The carrier is in the process of introducing a new business class product featured onboard its Airbus A321neo fleet. It is also rolling out a brand-new frequent flier program – IndiGo BluChip – which is now open for pre-registration.

No timeline given

System outages like this can prove tricky to fully resolve – as such, IndiGo has yet to provide a timeline on when it expects its systems to be fully restored. All the airline is able to do is reassure passengers that its team is working hard to “restore stability and normalcy” as quickly as possible.

 An IndiGo Airbus A321neo seen taxiing at Mumbai Airport

Photo: BoeingMan777 l Shutterstock

Simple Flying readers will recall the CrowdStrike outage this summer which caused major disruption across the aviation world – while most airlines were able to restore system functionality within a few days, some continued to struggle for weeks after, most notably Delta Air Lines.

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