IndiGo Continues Selling Tickets Despite Widespread Cancellations. Here's Why?

IndiGo is still selling tickets even as it cancels hundreds of flights daily, raising questions about how bookings continue amid ongoing disruptions. The reason is simple: despite the widespread cancellations, the airline has not grounded its entire fleet or stopped all of its more than 2,200 daily domestic and international flights.

The disruptions have largely affected specific airports and dates, with Friday being the worst-hit day, when over 1,000 flights were cancelled, including all domestic departures from Delhi.

While parts of IndiGo’s network remain in crisis mode, many routes, such as Kolkata-Guwahati and Chennai-Coimbatore, as well as connections between non-metro cities, are still operational, though often with delays and reduced frequency.

As a result, flights on these unaffected routes continue to be open for booking, NDTV reported.

Airlines rarely cancel flights weeks in advance unless there is a complete shutdown. IndiGo is managing the disruptions on a day-to-day basis, meaning flights scheduled in the coming days remain available for booking on the assumption that operations will stabilise.

The airline has described the cancellations as part of a one-time “system reboot” to reposition aircraft and crew, aiming to resume normal schedules gradually, with near-normal operations expected between December 10 and 15.

During such disruptions, airlines often keep seats on flights available until crew reassignments or aircraft rotations are finalised. Only then are flights officially marked as cancelled, which is standard practice globally.

IndiGo’s booking system is therefore designed to keep future flights open unless there is certainty that they cannot operate. A complete shutdown of ticket sales would only occur if the airline grounded itself entirely or aviation authorities ordered a suspension, neither of which has happened.