Amid 9 flight cancellations, Umrah travel fully resumes in J&K

Srinagar, Dec 11: Allaying apprehensions that the ongoing flight disruption of low-cost carrier IndiGo may dampen the Umrah-related travel this winter, full-scale Umrah travel on Thursday saw its resumption at the Srinagar International Airport after almost a week.

Over 180 Umrah pilgrims, in three to four batches, left the Srinagar International Airport on IndiGo flights for Hyderabad and for an onward journey to Jeddah, the airline sources said.

Amid the restoration of Umrah travel, five routine flights were cancelled at the Srinagar Airport on Thursday.

Director, Srinagar International Airport, Javed Anjum, told Greater Kashmir that of the four IndiGo flights cancelled, two flights were scheduled for Delhi, one each for Kolkata and Amritsar.

Besides, one SpiceJet flight from Srinagar was also cancelled on Thursday, the spokesman said.

However, the Airport Director said resumption of full-fledged Umrah travel was a positive sign.

“During the last week, we saw some flights carrying Umrah pilgrims leaving from here. But, today, the number of these travellers has grown manifold,” Anjum said.

Commenting on the resumption, Jammu Kashmir Association of Hajj and Umrah Companies (JHAHUC) President, Sheikh Feroz, said that the focus was to clear the backlog of Umrah travellers, whose flights got cancelled during the last few days.

Feroz said the departure of flights carrying Umrah pilgrims had helped the travel agents to heave a sigh of relief.

Last Monday, JHAHUC held a news conference and said the IndiGo flight cancellations had not till then had a “major impact” on Umrah-related travel as a limited number of groups of pilgrims were by then leaving for the holy journey.

However, the umbrella body had warned of dire consequences if the flights carrying pilgrims did not resume by December 15.

The journey of the pilgrims from Srinagar to Jeddah via Ahmedabad is being seen as a welcome step.

“Today, three to four groups left from Srinagar and this brought huge relief. We hope there is an end to this flight fiasco soon,” Feroz said.

Four IndiGo flights – two each scheduled for Hyderabad and Delhi - were cancelled at the Jammu Airport on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a statement issued by IndiGo said its foremost priority continues to be the “care of travellers”.

“As part of this, following the operational disruption, we have ensured that all necessary refunds for cancelled flights have been initiated, most of which have already been reflected in your accounts, with the remainder following shortly. If the booking was made through a travel partner platform, the necessary actions for your refund have also been initiated,” it said.

“As we may not have your complete details in our system, we request you to write to us at customer.experience@goindigo.in so we can continue to assist you promptly. IndiGo regrettably acknowledges that part of our customers travelling on December 3, 4, 5, 2025, were stranded for many hours at certain airports, and a number of them were severely impacted due to congestion. We will offer travel vouchers worth Rs 10,000 to such severely impacted customers. These travel vouchers can be used for any future IndiGo journey for the next 12 months. This compensation is in addition to the commitment under the existing government guidelines, as per which, IndiGo will provide compensation of Rs 5000 to Rs 10,000, depending on the block time of the flight, to those customers whose flights were cancelled within 24 hours of departure time. At IndiGo, we are committed to restoring the experience you expect from us – safe, smooth, and reliable. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you again,” the IndiGo spokesperson said.

“IndiGo continues to strengthen its operations, improving its services day by day, and now operates over 1900 flights that seamlessly connect all 138 destinations across our network. Our commitment to operational excellence has led to significant efficiency gains, and our On-Time Performance has been restored to top-tier industry standards,” it said.