Delhi’s Aerocity Hotel Rooms Soar Past Rs 74,000 Per Night As IndiGo Cancels Around 550 Flights

New Delhi: After IndiGo cancelled more than five hundred flights globally, the flyers on Thursday arriving at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport found that rooms in the nearby Aerocity corridor had shot up to an unprecedented over Rs 74,000 per night, a price that would have seemed absurd only a week ago. According to sources, the hotel tariffs, which used to be modest at around Rs 5000 to Rs 10000, have become a price tag that has shocked not only the travellers but the industry insiders as well. 

As per sources, the sudden spike in the hotel tariffs has left many passengers moving to distant hotels to find a place to sleep, while some resort to sleeping on airport benches while they try to re‑book a flight. The wave of cancellations and delays of flights at the Delhi Airport has raised fears of a rapid surge in airfare.

The hotel industry insiders stated that a storm of events, apart from the wave of IndiGo flight cancellations, has amplified the surge. These events include a major international taxation conference, a paper‑industry expo, a UNESCO meeting, and a string of high‑profile weddings have already tightened the city’s luxury‑hotel supply, along with the arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Delhi. 

IndiGo, which normally operates about 2300 flights a day, saw its on‑time performance plunge from 35 per cent on Tuesday to just 19.7 per cent on Wednesday. The airline blamed a cocktail of cabin‑crew shortages, technology glitches and the rollout of revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) that came into force on November 1. The airline admitted, “We mis‑judged the crew numbers required under the new norms.” It added that winter weather and congested airspace had further fuelled the problem.

The Civil Aviation Ministry and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) summoned senior IndiGo officials on Thursday to discuss a way forward, and the regulator has temporarily rolled back the night‑duty window from midnight to 5 am to midnight to 6 am and lifted the cap of two night landings.

Notably, the disruption of IndiGo flights was not confined to Delhi, with Mumbai reporting 118 cancellations, Bangalore 100, Hyderabad 75, Kolkata 35, Chennai 26 and Goa 11, as per reports. 

According to the reports, the crisis stems from the transition to Phase 2 of the revised FDTL rules, a court‑mandated move, which was to reduce pilot fatigue. The new limits mean airlines need more pilots for night operations, but the slot‑constrained airports and tighter duty windows have left IndiGo short‑staffed. The DGCA has asked the airline to submit a remediation plan.

Meanwhile, the passengers have expressed their anger and frustration following the flight cancellations and delays. Suraj Singh, a Pune resident, said, “I was supposed to be in Chandigarh for a family reunion, but my flight from Pune was delayed six hours and then cancelled…..We ended up sleeping on the floor of the terminal because every hotel within a ten‑kilometre radius was booked at ridiculous prices.” 

Another traveller, 19‑year‑old student Soham Raut, missed his exam after being shuffled between Delhi, Chennai and Port Blair, finally being offered a 4 am flight that was later cancelled. “I just want to go home,” he said.

In the meantime, IndiGo has promised to add more flights in the coming days, but analysts warn that restoring confidence will take time. The airline’s share price has already slipped, and the DGCA probe could lead to further scrutiny. The passengers are being advised to check their flight status frequently and to consider alternative accommodation well away from the airport if they can.