After days of major delays and cancellations, IndiGo is showing early signs of recovery. The Civil Aviation Ministry said on Sunday that the airline has processed ₹610 crore in passenger refunds for those affected by the disruptions. Around 3,000 misplaced bags have also been returned to passengers across the country as of Saturday.

India’s largest airline usually operates around 2,300 flights a day. But due to the crisis, it ran just over 700 flights on Friday. On Saturday, the number doubled to about 1,500. IndiGo said 137 out of its 138 destinations were back in operation on December 7.

The airline added that the aviation network is moving quickly toward normal levels and that all corrective steps will stay in place until operations fully stabilise.

In its statement, the Civil Aviation Ministry said the government has taken “rapid and decisive steps” to reduce inconvenience for passengers. It added that domestic air services across India are now stabilising at a fast pace.

While other airlines are functioning at full capacity, IndiGo’s performance is improving as well. Flight operations rose from 706 on Friday to 1,565 on Saturday and were expected to reach around 1,650 by Sunday.

The ministry also said, “IndiGo has so far processed refunds totalling Rs 610 crore… No additional fees are permitted for rescheduling travel impacted by cancellations,” and noted that dedicated teams have been set up to resolve refund and rebooking issues quickly.

IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers said the airline is making steady progress. In an internal message to staff, he stated:

“Today, we have realised further improvements of the system in order to reach around 1,650 flights.”

He added that the airline’s on-time performance is expected to reach 75% on Sunday. Elbers also said the company has been cancelling flights earlier in the process so passengers do not come to the airport unnecessarily.

Meanwhile, aviation regulator DGCA has granted IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Accountable Manager Isidro Porqueras an extra 24 hours to reply to a show-cause notice related to the large-scale disruptions.

The notice, issued on December 6, asked both officials to explain why the airline faced such significant operational issues for six days in a row. The executives requested more time due to the size of IndiGo’s operations and other unavoidable challenges, and the DGCA extended the deadline to 6 pm on Monday.

The regulator issued the notice after thousands of passengers were affected by widespread delays and cancellations across multiple airports.