PATNA, Dec. 6 -- Travellers in Bihar are staring down a nightmare of empty skies and wallet-busting ticket prices, all thanks to IndiGo's spiraling operational meltdown that's left the state's airports in disarray.

Over 25 flights of the country's largest airline to Bihar's airports have been cancelled on Saturday, owing to alleged shortage of pilots and restraints of the fresh safety rules, impacting close to 3,000 passengers. The passengers were left to fend for themselves at gates or scrambling for alternatives.

At Patna's Jay Prakash Narayan International (JPNI) airport, the chaos peaked on Friday with 25 out of 29 scheduled IndiGo departures axed, leaving only a skeleton crew of services to Hyderabad, Ranchi and Lucknow limping alo...