Srinagar: The usually bustling cargo bay at Srinagar International Airport lies eerily quiet. Its conveyor belts are still, and stacks of unattended packages are growing by the hour. With IndiGo’s nationwide service disruption entering its seventh day, Kashmir’s courier, logistics, and pathological testing ecosystem has been thrown into unprecedented turmoil.
At dawn, delivery agents from multiple courier firms stood in tense clusters outside the cargo terminal, scrolling anxiously through their phones for fresh flight updates. Most screens flashed the same message: Delayed. Rescheduled. Cancelled.
For Kashmir, where IndiGo operates the majority of flights in and out of Srinagar, the impact has been especially severe.
“Right now, we are more concerned about pathological tests that are getting delayed — this sector has been hit badly,” said Sheikh Zahoor Qari, President of the Kashmir Courier Association, adding, “a large chunk of rare and high-end pathological samples are shipped outside the Valley for analysis. With flights disrupted, everything is stuck.”
Many private hospitals and diagnostic labs across Kashmir echoed the concern. They have run out of time-sensitive sample windows, forcing them to repeat tests or request new blood draws from anxious patients.
“We have many pathological tests which are being done in Mumbai and Hyderabad. Because of the Indigo fiasco, patients are suffering. We have to wait and get samples again for these tests,” said a doctor at one of the valley’s leading private hospitals.
As per Qari, more than 30 percent of courier and logistics services have remained hit for the last one week. “Priority shipments are the worst affected.”
Locals too fumed over the breakdown of Indigo services. “It has now been a week since we have been suffering. Our couriers get delayed. From delivery of medicines to medical tests, every service has been affected,” said Suheem Ahmad Bhat, a resident.
While trains and road transport have stepped in as makeshift alternatives, courier and logistics service providers said they cannot fully replace air connectivity for time-bound medical consignments and high-value courier packets. “A good number of couriers come via air. This sector has been hit badly — no two ways about it,” Qari said.