New Delhi: As IndiGo’s unprecedented operational crisis continued to unfold, thousands of passengers across India’s major airports were left stranded, not only by canceled flights but also by missing luggage. The scale of the disruption was staggering: on Friday alone, IndiGo canceled over 1,000 flights, triggering chaos across the nation and leaving countless travelers searching desperately for their belongings.

The luggage problems span multiple categories. Some belong to passengers whose flights were canceled outright. Others are for travelers arriving from overseas with IndiGo as the connecting carrier, or those flying out of India on IndiGo connections. Still others are from passengers whose flights were rescheduled or merged with alternate services. Regardless of category, the experience for passengers has been universally stressful and frustrating.

IndiGo’s operational meltdown comes in the wake of new crew rostering and flight duty regulations introduced by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The airline struggled to comply with these norms, leading to persistent cancellations throughout November, averaging over 25 flights a day. By early December, the disruption escalated into a full-blown crisis. On Friday, the DGCA intervened, relaxing rules on pilot duty hours at night for IndiGo’s Airbus A320 fleet and allowing the airline to recall pilots previously deputed elsewhere. A separate rule preventing airlines from counting pilot leave as weekly rest was also withdrawn, temporarily easing regulatory pressure on the carrier.

However, while the regulatory relief aims to stabilize operations, passengers bore the brunt of the chaos. At Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, the Baggage Make-up Area (BMA) was overflowing, creating further confusion. “Typically, once checked-in, luggage moves through conveyor belts to the BMA and then is sent airside to be loaded onto aircraft,” a Delhi airport official explained on condition of anonymity. “But with the aircraft missing, bags have been accumulating here.”

Among the many affected passengers is a 28-year-old electrical engineer visiting India from the United States. She has been unable to locate her luggage since arriving in Delhi on November 26. “It’s been 10 days, and all my family and I have done is call IndiGo’s customer care,” she said, preferring not to be named. The baggage contains gifts for her parents, making its absence all the more distressing. Her mother described how a volcanic eruption in Ethiopia had canceled her daughter’s original KLM flight, and IndiGo was booked as a replacement carrier, with luggage assurances that were never fulfilled.

The problem is not unique to Delhi. Social media posts across the country tell similar stories of stranded passengers. In Bengaluru, one user reported waiting 15 hours for luggage needed for a wedding. In Calicut, a retired Lt Col recounted his flight to Jeddah being canceled after check-in, leaving his baggage unaccounted for. In Chennai, Deepa J, a 60-year-old resident of the US, spent over 12 hours at Delhi airport unable to locate her luggage or take her connecting flight.

The logistical issues are compounded by IndiGo’s ongoing technical difficulties. Previous glitches in the baggage handling system, such as the October disruption at Terminal 1, left over 3,500 bags behind in a single day, taking nearly a week to clear. Current conditions suggest that similar delays are affecting passengers nationwide. While an IndiGo official stated that luggage is being returned “with a slight delay,” travelers’ experiences indicate that the term “slight” may vastly understate the scale of the disruption.

The chaos at airports illustrates how critical luggage management is to airline operations. When a flight is canceled, it is the airline’s responsibility to collect, store, and return baggage efficiently. But with thousands of flights disrupted and baggage systems overwhelmed, both passengers and airlines are struggling to manage expectations.

The IndiGo crisis has highlighted broader concerns about airline preparedness, particularly during peak travel seasons. Thousands of passengers are not just delayed—they are cut off from essentials, from gifts and personal belongings to medications and travel necessities. Airport officials, while emphasizing efforts to return luggage, note that the system is under unprecedented stress, and passengers may continue to face delays over the next several days.

For many travelers, the disruptions have had personal consequences. Some were attempting to reach family members for special occasions, while others were managing urgent medical travel. In every case, the inability to access luggage has compounded the stress of disrupted flight plans, leaving passengers trapped in a cycle of uncertainty and frustration.

As IndiGo works to reboot operations with regulatory relief from the DGCA, the luggage backlog remains a pressing concern. Until systems stabilize and flights resume normal schedules, passengers may continue to experience the cascading effects of one of the largest operational failures in the airline’s history.