Dec 08, Kathmandu - Shares of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, which operates India’s largest airline IndiGo, have fallen sharply after the service was disrupted last week.

The company’s shares fell as much as 7.6 percent on Monday, taking its market value by $4.3 billion in the past seven days, according to Bloomberg.

Thousands of passengers were stranded at major airports in India last week when IndiGo, which accounts for about 66 percent of India’s domestic market, canceled a large number of flights.

More than a thousand flights were canceled on Friday alone. That is almost half of IndiGo's normal daytime service. The country's civil aviation regulator has since sought an explanation from IndiGo's CEO, Peter Albers.

IndiGo's services have been affected since Tuesday night due to a shortage of pilots, mainly after new rules were introduced to increase mandatory rest periods for pilots and reduce the number of night landings.

Although the regulator announced the new rules long ago, the company, which operates the service at low cost with a small staff, did not add a sufficient number of new pilots, which affected the service.

The company issued a statement on Sunday saying it expected operations to return to normal by Wednesday. The Narendra Modi-led central government has also suspended those rules for now to ensure the company's stability.

Opponents have criticized the move, saying the move is to ease the rules rather than take action against the company, which has made huge donations to Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, for causing so much pain to the public.