IndiGo’s Ranchi Cancellations Cut Off Eight Cities at Once

IndiGo cancelled 24 flight movements at Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Airport on September 25, 2026, after rain and thunderstorms tied to a depression over Chhattisgarh. The cuts covered 12 arrivals and 12 departures on services to Kolkata, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Patna and Delhi.

Airport director Vinod Kumar said 44 flights were on the day’s timetable. Twenty-four of those were IndiGo services pulled for weather, Air India Express dropped a Bengaluru pairing for operational reasons, and three flights were diverted.

IndiGo Took 24 Movements Off a 44-Flight Board

The airline’s own count matches the airport’s on the IndiGo side: 12 scheduled rotations, 12 in and 12 out. That is not a thin slice of a metro hub. It is most of what Ranchi flies in a day, because only two scheduled passenger airlines use the field and IndiGo holds almost the whole map.

Kumar put the rest of the damage in one briefing. One Air India Express flight and its return were cancelled for operational reasons, taking the day’s cancellations to 26, and three aircraft were sent elsewhere. Hundreds of passengers were left in the terminal waiting for a new plan, with no public timetable for when the cancelled services would run again.

THE DAY ON THE BOARD

• Timetable: 44 flights were scheduled at Birsa Munda on September 25, 2026.
• IndiGo weather cuts: 24 movements, equal to 12 arrivals and 12 departures.
• Air India Express: the Bengaluru pairing IX 1239/1244 was cancelled for operational reasons.
• Diversions: three flights were sent to other airports, on top of the cancellations.

IndiGo told travellers to stay in touch and to check the latest flight status before leaving for the airport, and it warned that roads would be slower than usual. It did not publish a restart grid with that note.

The Depression That Sat Over Chhattisgarh

This was not a surprise squall. At 8:30 am on September 25, the India Meteorological Department placed a depression over south Chhattisgarh and adjoining south interior Odisha, near 20.9°N and 82.4°E, about 80 km east-southeast of Raipur, moving north-northwest at 15 kmph. The bulletin said the system would hold depression strength for about 12 hours, then weaken into a well marked low.

The Meteorological Centre at the airport, in the same midday bulletin, logged 41.0 mm of rain at Ranchi in the previous 24 hours. Maximum temperature was 24.4°C, 5.2 degrees below normal. Minimum was 21.4°C. Relative humidity sat at 98 percent in the morning and 93 percent later. Ranchi Aero was listed at 41 mm in the state’s rainfall table, while Saraikela AWS led Jharkhand at 94.5 mm.

The warning for the central belt that includes Ranchi was isolated thunderstorms, lightning, and gusty wind of 50 to 60 kmph, with 40 to 50 kmph over the rest of the state. Local reports from the airfield said no aircraft had landed by about 9 am, with inbound flights from Pune, Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi missing their slots and some holding overhead.

Rain did not stop with Friday morning. The city weather sheet dated September 26 recorded 59.4 mm of rain and a maximum of 23.9°C, 5.7 degrees below normal. The Friday forecast had already kept Saturday under cloudy skies with light to moderate rain or thundershowers at most places over Jharkhand, and heavy rain at isolated spots that still included Ranchi.

Which Ranchi Flights Were Cancelled on September 25?

IndiGo’s cancelled rotations tied Ranchi to eight cities, with three Delhi-Ranchi-Delhi pairings and three Kolkata-Ranchi-Kolkata pairings among the losses. Named services included 6E 7561/7562 on Kolkata, 6E 6484/6799 on the Pune-Ranchi-Bengaluru triangle, 6E 421/398 on Hyderabad, 6E 6087/6088 on Mumbai, 6E 6493/925 on Ahmedabad-Ranchi-Patna, and Delhi pairings 6E 2259/5207 and 6E 2614/2286.

CANCELLED INDIGO PAIRINGS

Air India Express was the only other scheduled carrier on the field. IX 1239/1244 on Bengaluru-Ranchi-Bengaluru was cancelled for operational reasons. IX 1046 from Delhi, due at 8:40 am, arrived at 9:56 am, 1 hour 16 minutes late. IX 1047 back to Delhi, due out at 9:10 am, left at 10:52 am, 1 hour 42 minutes late. Those two aircraft kept a Delhi thread open. They did not replace a lost Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune or Ahmedabad bank.

Varanasi, Lucknow and a Body That Could Not Land

The cancellations were the second act. On the night of September 24, IndiGo’s 6E 221 from Bengaluru, bound for Ranchi, landed at Lucknow at 9:45 pm and left for Delhi at 11:30 pm. 6E 5023 from Delhi to Ranchi reached Lucknow at 10:20 pm, was cancelled there, and had its passengers put in hotels before they were flown to Delhi the next day.

Friday morning, 6E 6484 from Pune put 163 passengers and seven crew on the ground at Varanasi at about 9:15 am. There was a dead body on that aircraft. Passengers were sent toward Ranchi by road. The body stayed on the plane, which was to return to Pune and come back to Ranchi a day later. 6E 6370 from Delhi arrived at Varanasi at about 10:15 am with 216 passengers and six crew, including former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda, who also served as Union agriculture minister. The aircraft left for Ranchi at about 12:40 pm. Sixty-four of the 216 people got off in Varanasi; 152 stayed on for Ranchi.

HOW THE DISRUPTION RAN

1. September 24, 2026, 9:45 pm: IndiGo 6E 221 from Bengaluru lands at Lucknow instead of Ranchi, then leaves for Delhi at 11:30 pm.
2. September 24, 2026, 10:20 pm: IndiGo 6E 5023 from Delhi arrives at Lucknow, is cancelled, and passengers are housed overnight.
3. September 25, 2026, about 9:00 am: No arrivals have landed at Ranchi; inbound aircraft hold or miss slots in rain and wind.
4. September 25, 2026, about 9:15 am: 6E 6484 from Pune lands at Varanasi with 163 passengers, seven crew, and a body on board.
5. September 25, 2026, about 10:15 am: 6E 6370 from Delhi lands at Varanasi with 216 passengers, including Arjun Munda.
6. September 25, 2026, afternoon: IndiGo lists 12 Ranchi rotations cancelled; Kumar counts 26 cancellations and three diversions on a 44-flight board.

Haqiqat Ansari, a Hazaribag resident travelling to Riyadh with his parents, found the Ranchi-Delhi link gone after he had already reached the airport. The airline moved them to Saturday, which meant another trip in from Hazaribag and extra cost. A Delhi couple who had been in Ranchi since September 20 had their return pulled the same way and were also pointed to Saturday.

We were informed about the cancellation only after reaching the airport.

Haqiqat Ansari, passenger travelling from Hazaribag to Riyadh via Delhi

Parminder Kaur Chhina, former chairperson of the Punjab State Women’s Commission, wrote that she had reached Delhi for Ranchi, that all IndiGo flights that day were cancelled, and that she had no certainty for the next day, so she went back to Chandigarh. At Ahmedabad, a cancelled 6E 6493 passenger was being pointed toward Bhubaneswar with no hotel and a steep fare onward to Ranchi. The Ministry of Civil Aviation asked for the booking details by message. IndiGo’s account told the family the change was bad weather at Ranchi, “which is beyond our control,” and that airport staff were assisting.

That is the second hit of a weather day at a thin airport. The first is the cancelled sector. The next is a night in the wrong city, a road transfer, or a fare that the original ticket does not cover.

Two Airlines, Ten IndiGo Cities, One Weather Day

Birsa Munda is a domestic field run by the Airports Authority of India at Birsa Munda Airport in Hinoo, about 5 km from the city centre. In the year to March 2026 it handled 2,701,796 passengers and 18,393 aircraft movements, about 50 movements a day, plus 7,741 tonnes of cargo. Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu, opening new passenger facilities there on May 20, 2026, said passenger traffic above 27 lakh had grown from 17 lakh over five years.

The scheduled map is still two names. IndiGo flies about ten cities from Ranchi, including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Patna and Pune. Air India Express covers a shorter list, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai among them. Nonstop flights from Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata are IndiGo only. When those rotations die, there is no second airline on the same city pair that morning.

Nationally, IndiGo carried 65 percent of India’s scheduled domestic passengers in August 2026. Ranchi is a local version of that concentration. A weather stop at Delhi still leaves other carriers. A weather stop at Ranchi leaves a late Air India Express from Delhi and a lot of empty gates.

CAT-I Gear Still Leaves Rain in Charge

Runway 13/31 is 2,748 m of asphalt with CAT-I instrument landing on both ends. The Airports Authority commissioned a replacement CAT-I ILS for runway 31 on January 9, 2023, after the old kit reached the end of its life. CAT-I is precision approach gear. It is not CAT-II lighting, which would let crews work down to lower visibility.

Airport director R.R. Mourya said in October 2025 that CAT-II lighting had been tendered and the equipment bought, then stopped because land toward Hesatu village could not be taken. He said aircraft at Ranchi needed about 1,400 m of visibility, against about 850 m if CAT-II lighting were in. Diwali visibility that year had dropped to about 500 m. Winter fog keeps writing the same log.

WEATHER DAYS ALREADY ON THE FILE

• January 18, 2024: 19 flights cancelled and two diverted in dense fog, with visibility between 50 m and 500 m until 2 pm, against a then-stated need for more than 1,300 m.
• January 14, 2025: one diversion and several delays, visibility below 1,000 m until 9:30 am, with a stated landing need of 1,200 m.
• November 24, 2025: four arrivals diverted, including IndiGo from Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad and Air India Express from Bengaluru, after runway visibility fell below 1,500 m.
• December 2025: a week of light fog still produced mass delays, and 14 flights were cancelled on one Saturday when visibility dropped to 50 m.

Friday’s problem was rain, thunderstorms and wind under a depression, not winter fog. The pattern is the same. When the weather goes below what CAT-I and the current lighting will accept, Ranchi’s day is decided in the hold, at Varanasi, or on a cancellation desk. The stalled CAT-II job is not why a 50 to 60 kmph thunderstorm stops a landing. It is why the airport has so little spare in any season.

What Passengers Can Claim After a Weather Cancellation

Heavy rain, thunderstorms and low visibility sit in the extraordinary-circumstances bucket under DGCA Civil Aviation Requirements, Section 3, Series M, Part IV, read with the passenger charter. Airlines do not owe the cash band of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 that applies when a cancellation is their fault. They still owe a choice between a full refund and a rebooking, and they still owe care for people who have already reported at the airport.

WHAT STILL APPLIES IN A STORM

• Choice of remedy: a full refund of the ticket or another flight, subject to seats, with the passenger choosing.
• Refund clock: under the February 24, 2026 revision of the refund of airline tickets rules, credit-card refunds are due in seven days; tickets bought through an agent or portal must be refunded by the airline within 21 working days, and taxes, UDF, ADF and PSF go back even on promo fares.
• Care at the airport: meals and refreshments while waiting, and hotel with transfers if an overnight delay becomes necessary, for passengers who have already reported.
• No cash band: the Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 cancellation payout does not apply when the airline can show weather that could not be avoided with reasonable measures.

Ansari’s group was told only after they had reached the airport, which is the point at which those care duties kick in. A reroute that dumps a passenger in Bhubaneswar with no room and a new fare is not the same as a like-for-like seat to Ranchi. Flyers who want the refund rather than a stray city should say so in writing and keep the boarding pass, the cancellation SMS, and any hotel or food bills.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Many Passengers Used Birsa Munda Airport Last Year?

The Airports Authority counted 2,701,796 passengers in April 2025 through March 2026, with 18,393 aircraft movements and 7,741 tonnes of cargo, and ranked the field among India’s busier domestic airports even though it has no scheduled international flights.

How Long Do Airlines Have to Refund a Weather-Cancelled Ticket?

DGCA’s February 24, 2026 refund CAR gives seven days for a credit-card refund to the card account and 21 working days when the ticket was bought through a travel agent or portal, and it requires statutory taxes and airport fees to be returned even if the base fare was sold as non-refundable.

Which Cities Have IndiGo as the Only Nonstop Carrier to Ranchi?

Published schedules for September 2026 show IndiGo as the only nonstop operator from Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata into Ranchi, so a cancelled IndiGo bank on those city pairs leaves no same-day nonstop rival on the same route.

What Instrument Landing Category Does Ranchi Airport Have?

Runway 13/31 is equipped with CAT-I instrument landing on both directions over 2,748 m of asphalt, after a replacement CAT-I ILS for runway 31 was commissioned on January 9, 2023; CAT-II approach lighting has not been installed because the land needed for a 900 m lighting array has not been acquired.

Ansari’s family was sent home to Hazaribag to try again on September 26, with the meteorological centre still advertising rain and thundershowers over Ranchi. The depression was forecast to weaken. The city’s air map was still IndiGo’s map, and that map had already gone dark once in 24 hours.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on flight cancellations and published aviation rules, and it is for information only. It is not legal advice, a claim form, or a finding on any passenger’s ticket. Readers who want a refund, rebooking or care should deal with their airline and, if needed, a qualified aviation or consumer lawyer, and may use the AirSewa grievance channel. Figures, flight statuses and weather readings are those published by the airline, the airport, IMD and DGCA for the dates named, and they can change as operations resume.