Tech Couple Forced to Attend Their Own Wedding Reception Virtually Due to IndiGo Flight Cancellations

The couple was scheduled to fly from Bhubaneswar to Bengaluru and onwards to Hubballi.

Bengaluru:

An extraordinary situation unfolded in Hubballi, Karnataka, when a newly married couple was forced to attend their own reception virtually due to widespread IndiGo flight cancellations that prevented them from traveling to the venue.

Medha Kshirsagar from Hubballi and Sangram Das from Bhubaneswar, Odisha, both software engineers working in Bengaluru, had their reception scheduled at Gujarat Bhavan in Hubballi.

The couple had exchanged vows in Bhubaneswar on November 23, with a formal reception planned in the bride's hometown on Wednesday.

However, the event took an unexpected turn when IndiGo cancelled numerous flights due to an ongoing pilot shortage affecting operations nationwide.

The bride and groom had booked flights from Bhubaneswar to Bengaluru with a connection to Hubballi for December 2. They found themselves stranded after their flights faced repeated delays from 9 AM on Tuesday until early the following morning, with the flight ultimately being cancelled on December 3.

Several family members traveling via the Bhubaneswar-Mumbai-Hubballi route also encountered cancellations.

With guests already assembled and all arrangements in place, the bride's parents improvised by sitting in the seats reserved for the couple to perform the traditional rituals.

The bride and groom, dressed in their wedding attire in Bhubaneswar, participated in the reception through video conferencing.

"The wedding ceremony took place on November 23, and we had organized the reception for December 3. Unfortunately, at 4 am, we learned the flight was cancelled. We remained hopeful they might still arrive, but it wasn't possible," explained the bride's mother.

"We felt terrible because we had invited many relatives, and cancelling the event at the last moment was impossible. After family discussions, we decided to have the couple attend virtually and display their participation on screen," she added.

IndiGo has cancelled hundreds of flights across India this week after failing to implement sufficient changes to their roster planning to accommodate new government regulations.

Flight operations have been disrupted at airports in Delhi, Jaipur, Bhopal, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and other cities, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

On Thursday, IndiGo, which reportedly operates approximately 2,200 flights daily, cancelled more than 500 flights, marking the highest number of cancellations in a single day throughout its 20-year history. The airline informed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that operations are expected to fully stabilize by February 10 next year and requested temporary relaxations in flight duty norms.

IndiGo acknowledged that the recent flight disruptions were primarily due to misjudgment and planning gaps in implementing the second phase of the Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) regulations. The airline also notified the regulator that additional cancellations would continue until December 8, after which there would be a reduction in services.