Couple Forced to Attend Their Wedding Virtually After Last-Minute Flight Cancellation

NEED TO KNOW

• Medha Kshirasagar and Sangama Das were forced to join their own wedding virtually due to an unexpected flight cancellation.

• According to a couple from Bangalore, India, their IndiGo flight was delayed several times and then canceled entirely.

• “If IndiGo had informed us earlier, we could have arranged things differently,” the bride's father said.

A couple from Bangalore, India, missed their own wedding due to an unexpected flight cancellation.

Medha Kshirasagar and Sangama Das, both software engineers, were forced to attend their wedding reception virtually after their flight from Bhubaneswar to Hubballi was repeatedly delayed and then canceled altogether, according to a report Times of India.

According to the report, the couple, who got married on November 23, had planned a grand reception at Gujarat Bhavan in Hubballi on December 3.

While relatives from both sides gradually arrived at the meeting place, employees of IndiGo—India's largest low-cost airline—allegedly kept telling the couple that the flight was delayed, starting around 9 a.m. local time on December 2. The next morning their flight was completely cancelled.

“Throughout the entire day, the flight was constantly shown as delayed,” the bride’s father, Anil Kumar, told the publication. Times of India. “It wasn’t until about 6 or 8 p.m. that they finally announced the cancellation.”

So, Kshirasagar and Das were left with no choice but to attend their own wedding virtually. While the bride's father set up a large screen at the venue so the couple could interact with their guests, the newlyweds dressed up to celebrate their wedding from afar.

“If IndiGo had informed us earlier, we could have taken different measures,” Kumar said. “Because they did not provide timely information, the appointment had to be done online.”

According to ReutersKshirasagar and Das were not the only ones left stranded after IndiGo canceled their flight. In the biggest crisis in the 20-year-old airline's history, 385 IndiGo flights were canceled on December 6 and over 1,000 flights were canceled the previous day.

Never miss a story – subscribe PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up to date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Why is there such a commotion at airports? According to New York TimesIndiGo said there were “multiple unforeseen operational issues” behind the flight delays and cancellations, including weather and technology glitches. The airline also said new rules requiring more rest time for pilots and flight crew were impacting schedules.

However, the Indian Pilots Federation claims that these rules were announced almost two years ago. “All other airlines adequately provided pilots and were largely unscathed,” the union said in a statement to New York Timesadding that the cancellations were “a direct consequence of IndiGo's long and unorthodox workforce reduction strategy.”

On December 6, the airline announced the outage on social media and guaranteed that all cancellations would be accompanied by refunds and accommodations.

“We have canceled a significant number of flights and operated just over 700 flights yesterday, connecting 113 destinations,” the airline said in a statement. “The main goal was to reboot the network, systems and registries so that we can start again today with more flights, improved stability, and there are some early signs of improvement.”

“While we understand we have a long way to go, we are committed to regaining the trust of our customers,” the statement said. “We apologize again.”

Read the original article at People