New Delhi: The ongoing IndiGo flight crisis continued to wreak havoc at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Friday, leaving passengers stranded and scrambling for alternative arrangements. Among those affected was Sanjay Rabari, a father who had traveled all the way from Canada to India to celebrate his son’s second birthday, only to find his journey halted by repeated flight cancellations.

“I am exhausted but I am smiling and trying to be calm, because I need to find a way to reach home,” Rabari said as he spent hours outside Terminal 3. He had arrived in Delhi early Friday morning after a long journey from Detroit via Heathrow, with a final leg to Ahmedabad remaining. His hopes of completing the journey were dashed when his IndiGo flight was cancelled, and no alternate flights were available.

Rabari, who has been away from his family for over two-and-a-half years due to his work as a security officer in Canada, expressed the emotional toll of the disruption. “I have only seen my son in photos and videos. Tomorrow, he will turn two and I came to India especially for his birthday,” he said.

He also described the logistical nightmare created by the airline’s cancellations. “I have come here for 14 days only and have already spent three days in airports,” Rabari said. “I have tried getting a train ticket but that’s also not available and I don’t want to travel by road for 16 hours as I’ll be exhausted. My wife and I had spent the last couple of months planning how we will exactly spend time with our kid. This chaos has suddenly halted the free flow of those thoughts; now I just want to reach home and see him.”

Rabari’s plight mirrors that of many other passengers stranded at Delhi and across the country. Among them was 61-year-old Ethiopian national Okafor Nnamdi, who had flown to India to transport a patient back to Nigeria after medical treatment. “I bring sick people from countries like Ethiopia and Nigeria to India for medical treatment,” Nnamdi said. “Tomorrow, I have to take a Nigerian patient who was undergoing cancer treatment back to Nigeria from Mumbai, but I am stuck here.”

Nnamdi added that he hopes to secure a flight for Sunday morning, highlighting the uncertainty faced by travelers as airlines struggle to manage operational disruptions.

The crisis at Delhi airport is part of a larger operational meltdown at IndiGo, which has seen thousands of flight cancellations over the past several days. Technical failures in crew rostering and scheduling, combined with shortages of trained pilots, have left the airline unable to meet its winter schedule demands. Passengers have reported long waits, chaotic queues, and difficulty accessing information on alternate flights.

Many affected travelers have resorted to improvising solutions, including booking last-minute hotel rooms near the airport, attempting to secure train tickets, or exploring road travel despite the logistical challenges. Social media has been flooded with accounts of stranded passengers sharing food, chargers, and advice to cope with the unprecedented disruption.

Authorities have intervened to manage the crisis. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has granted IndiGo temporary relief from certain crew duty rules to stabilize operations, while simultaneously reviewing the airline’s operational lapses. Nonetheless, passengers like Rabari and Nnamdi continue to bear the brunt of the airline’s ongoing disruptions.

For Rabari, the stakes are deeply personal. “I just want to be with my son,” he said. “This is the first time I will see him on his birthday, and this flight chaos is making what should have been a joyful occasion extremely stressful.”

The IndiGo crisis serves as a stark reminder of the ripple effects operational failures can have on travelers’ lives, highlighting the urgent need for airlines to ensure contingency planning, timely communication, and customer support during large-scale disruptions.