India’s largest airline, IndiGo, is still grappling with the aftershocks of a crippling wave of cancellations earlier this month that saw thousands of flights dropped from schedules, stranding travelers across the country and exposing deep vulnerabilities in the carrier’s crew planning and the wider regulatory framework.

Even as the immediate chaos eases, reduced frequencies, reworked timetables and spillover delays continue to ripple through India’s domestic network, affecting connections, fares and capacity nationwide.

More News:

A Month Of Disruption That Shook India’s Busiest Airline

IndiGo’s troubles escalated in late November and the first half of December, when the airline began cancelling services at a scale not seen in years. Data submitted to India’s civil aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, show that the carrier scrubbed 1,232 flights in November alone.

Of those, 755 cancellations were directly linked to crew and Flight Duty Time Limitation compliance, highlighting how sharply crew availability collided with the new rostering rules that took effect in November.

The November figures were only the start. As the second phase of the revised duty-time norms kicked in from November 1, IndiGo’s operational reliability deteriorated further.

Industry reports and regulatory briefings indicate that, counting disruptions in early December, the airline has now cancelled well over 1,500 flights since the new guidelines took full effect, and at one point was averaging 170 to 200 cancellations per day. Travelers reported scenes of overcrowded terminals, long queues at service desks and mounting confusion over rebookings and refunds.

Particularly disruptive were several days in early December when cancellations surged into the hundreds in a single 24-hour period, overwhelming IndiGo’s customer service channels and airport handling capacity.

Videos and photos shared by passengers on social media showed tempers flaring at check-in counters and boarding gates in cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata as travelers grappled with last-minute changes or outright loss of flights.

The carrier’s on-time performance, long a key part of its brand promise, also suffered a steep decline. IndiGo’s punctuality rate dropped from around 84 percent in October to below 68 percent in November, according to regulator disclosures, further compounding the disruption as delayed inbound aircraft and crew created knock-on effects for subsequent departures.

New Crew Duty Rules Collide With IndiGo’s Scheduling Strategy

Behind the visible chaos at airport terminals lies a complex shift in the way pilots and cabin crew are scheduled in India. On November 1, the DGCA implemented the next phase of revised Flight Duty Time Limitation norms, designed to address growing concerns about pilot fatigue by tightening rest requirements and limiting night operations. The reforms were years in the making and had been signaled well in advance, giving airlines a window to recruit, train and rework their rosters.

For IndiGo, however, the transition proved more painful than expected. Aviation officials and industry executives say the airline underestimated how many additional pilots and crew members it would need to operate its expanded winter schedule under the tougher rules.

Internal planning assumptions about aircraft availability and sector lengths appear to have clashed with the new limits on consecutive night duties and the classification of weekly rest, reducing the effective pool of crew who could be legally rostered on a given day.

The DGCA initially insisted that weekly rest could not be substituted with any form of leave, effectively forcing airlines to treat days off and mandated rest separately in pilots’ rosters. As IndiGo’s disruptions mounted and airports experienced what the regulator itself described as “operational disruptions,” the government eventually softened its stance.

In early December, authorities rolled back that specific provision and allowed airlines to count certain forms of leave toward the weekly rest requirement, while also granting IndiGo a one-time exemption from parts of the night-duty restrictions until February 10.

Even with that regulatory relief, IndiGo has conceded publicly that it “misjudged” the operational impact of the new norms. Executives have told officials and investors that the carrier will need several more weeks to fully stabilize schedules, a process that involves recalibrating roster software, reassigning crew bases and, where possible, accelerating pilot training and induction to expand the roster pool.

Regulators Step In With Flight Cuts And Investigations

The scale of the cancellations has triggered an assertive response from India’s aviation authorities. In early December, as cancellations crossed the 2,000 mark in a single week, the DGCA ordered IndiGo to cut its approved schedule by 5 percent across the winter season.

The regulator argued that the airline had sought and received permission to operate more flights than its crew strength and aircraft availability could reliably support under the new rules.

The winter schedule for IndiGo had been approved at over 15,000 weekly domestic departures, roughly 6 percent higher than its summer schedule and nearly 10 percent above the previous winter.

Yet the airline was operating fewer aircraft than projected, even as the revised duty-time norms increased pilot requirements. As a result, the DGCA accused IndiGo of failing to demonstrate that it could “efficiently” operate its planned network and demanded a revised schedule focused particularly on busy, competitive routes.

The regulatory scrutiny has not stopped at safety and scheduling oversight. The Competition Commission of India has also begun a preliminary review of complaints alleging that IndiGo may have abused its dominant market position amid the disruption. With a domestic market share above 60 percent, the airline wields outsized influence on fares and capacity.

Some passengers and industry rivals have alleged that cancellations on certain routes were followed by an apparent spike in available fares on remaining services, prompting calls for closer examination of pricing practices during the crisis period.

In parallel, the aviation ministry has pressed IndiGo to detail its compensation plans and passenger care policies. Following high-profile scenes of stranded travelers sleeping on terminal floors or queuing overnight for rebooking, government officials have publicly urged the airline to process refunds swiftly and offer alternative arrangements wherever feasible. Authorities have also hinted at temporary fare caps and route reallocations as tools to prevent extreme price spikes during peak demand weeks.

Network-Wide Backlogs, Reduced Frequencies And Strained Connections

While IndiGo and regulators say operations are now more stable than during the worst days of early December, the after-effects remain visible across India’s domestic network. In many city pairs that previously saw near-hourly flights, IndiGo has trimmed frequencies and consolidated services onto larger aircraft. For travelers, that means fewer departure options, busier flights and less flexibility in rebooking when plans change.

One illustrative example is the Trichy–Chennai route in Tamil Nadu. IndiGo, which previously operated up to six daily flights between the two cities, has reduced that number to two per day under the current curtailment directive.

The airline has swapped smaller regional aircraft for larger Airbus narrow-bodies, partially offsetting the cut in frequencies with higher seats per flight. Yet overall daily seat capacity on the route has still fallen, and travel agents report that remaining services are often close to full during the holiday season.

Similar adjustments are playing out across other high-density corridors such as Delhi–Mumbai, Bengaluru–Hyderabad and Kolkata–Guwahati, where IndiGo has been asked to focus reductions on routes where other carriers also operate, in order to preserve basic connectivity on monopoly sectors.

Even so, the rebalancing has created mismatches between demand and supply, especially during early morning and late evening waves when business travelers prefer to fly.

The backlogs are particularly acute for passengers holding onward connections. Lower frequencies mean tighter windows for making same-day domestic or international connections, and any delay can now force travelers into long layovers.

Airlines and online travel agencies say they have fielded a spike in calls from passengers seeking to rework complex itineraries that hinge on an IndiGo domestic leg feeding into an international flight on another carrier.

Fare Pressures And Competitive Response From Rival Carriers

The sudden reduction in IndiGo capacity, especially on trunk routes, has placed upward pressure on fares during what is already a peak travel period. Though the government has signaled that it may cap fares on certain sectors to prevent “excessive” pricing, travel agents report that last-minute tickets on popular routes regularly price much higher than just weeks ago. Lower-income travelers and those from smaller cities, who had come to rely on IndiGo’s low base fares, are among the hardest hit.

Rival airlines are moving quickly to fill at least part of the gap. Full-service carrier Air India has proposed hundreds of additional flights this month, while its low-cost affiliates and younger competitors such as Akasa Air are in talks with regulators about adding capacity on select routes.

The aviation ministry has suggested that routes trimmed from IndiGo’s schedule could be temporarily reallocated to other Indian carriers, both to maintain connectivity and to dilute the market dominance of a single operator.

Even so, India’s broader aviation ecosystem faces its own constraints. Many carriers are dealing with aircraft grounded for maintenance or engine issues, and pilot shortages are not unique to IndiGo.

Securing slots at congested airports, arranging ground handling and ensuring crew availability for newly added flights all take time. As a result, the overall capacity added by rivals so far has not fully offset the reduction in IndiGo’s schedule, and the system remains tighter than usual.

For frequent travelers, the immediate reality is a market where seats are scarcer and itineraries more fragile. Experts say the situation underlines the risks of heavy dependence on a single dominant carrier in a fast-growing aviation market, and may spur regulators to more closely monitor both capacity deployment and contingency planning across the industry.

What IndiGo Says It Is Doing To Restore Stability

IndiGo insists that it is moving aggressively to restore reliability and rebuild passenger trust. In public statements, the airline has apologized repeatedly for the disruptions and described the turmoil as the result of a “confluence” of factors: the introduction of new crew duty norms, seasonal schedule changes, episodes of bad weather and congestion, and pockets of technical and airport infrastructure issues.

Internally, the carrier has launched what it calls a “stability program” that includes recalculating daily schedules to better match realistic crew and aircraft availability, strengthening crew planning teams, and improving coordination with air traffic control and airport operators to anticipate bottlenecks.

IndiGo has also been inducting additional aircraft, including damp-leased planes operated with external cockpit crew, to improve resilience, though regulators say the benefits of added metal are limited when pilot availability is the key constraint.

The airline has told authorities it expects operations to be “completely stabilized” by mid-February, coinciding with the expiry of its temporary exemption from parts of the new duty-time rules.

Reaching that target will require a combination of incremental pilot hiring, more conservative scheduling and further fine-tuning of its rostering technology. How quickly IndiGo can rebuild buffers in its crew planning, after running with what insiders describe as effectively zero spare capacity in recent weeks, will be crucial.

In the near term, IndiGo says it is prioritizing predictable operations over maximum growth. That means keeping some capacity cut from the system and maintaining a margin of unused crew hours to absorb everyday disruptions. For passengers, it may translate into fewer, but more reliable, flight options as the airline recalibrates for a new regulatory and operational reality.

FAQ

Q1. Why did IndiGo cancel so many flights earlier this month?
IndiGo’s cancellations were driven primarily by a mismatch between its ambitious winter schedule and the new Flight Duty Time Limitation norms for pilots and crew, which took effect on November 1. The rules increased required rest periods and constrained night operations, and IndiGo had not sufficiently expanded its crew strength or reconfigured its rosters to comply, resulting in thousands of flights being dropped nationwide.

Q2. How many IndiGo flights have been cancelled in total?
Based on data shared with regulators and subsequent disclosures, IndiGo cancelled 1,232 flights in November, and the total number of cancellations since the new rules came fully into force has surpassed 1,500, with peak days in early December seeing several hundred cancellations within a single day.

Q3. Are the new pilot duty rules permanent?
The revised duty-time norms are intended as a long-term safety framework to reduce fatigue, but some specific provisions are under review. Authorities have already rolled back the ban on treating certain types of leave as weekly rest and have granted IndiGo a temporary exemption from parts of the night-duty rules until February 10, while broader implementation and safety impacts are reassessed.

Q4. How is this disruption affecting travelers across India?
Passengers are facing fewer flight options on key routes, fuller aircraft, higher last-minute fares and a greater risk of missed connections, especially where IndiGo legs feed into other domestic or international flights. Many travelers have had to accept significant schedule changes or overnight stays when same-day rebooking was not possible.

Q5. What is the government doing about the situation?
India’s aviation regulator has ordered IndiGo to cut its scheduled flights by 5 percent for the winter season, opened a probe into the causes of the cancellations and directed the airline to present a mitigation plan. The Competition Commission is also conducting a preliminary review of complaints about possible abuse of market dominance, while the aviation ministry has pressed IndiGo to compensate affected passengers and has discussed temporary fare caps and route reallocations.

Q6. Are other airlines benefiting from IndiGo’s troubles?
Rival carriers such as Air India and newer low-cost airlines are adding extra services on select routes to capture displaced demand and maintain connectivity. However, they face their own constraints in aircraft and crew availability, so the additional capacity has not fully replaced IndiGo’s cut flights, and the system remains under strain.

Q7. Is it still safe to fly with IndiGo?
Regulators emphasize that the cancellations stem from IndiGo’s efforts to comply with safety-driven crew duty rules and from shortcomings in planning, not from a relaxation of safety standards. The DGCA continues to monitor the airline closely, and IndiGo remains subject to the same safety audits and oversight as other scheduled carriers in India.

Q8. How long will the disruptions and reduced capacity last?
IndiGo has told authorities and passengers that it expects operations to be fully stabilized by around February 10, when its temporary exemptions from some duty-time provisions expire. Until then, reduced frequencies and schedule adjustments are likely to continue, especially on non-monopoly routes where the airline can consolidate services without severing connectivity.

Q9. What can passengers do if their IndiGo flight is cancelled?
Travelers whose flights are cancelled are generally entitled to a choice of rebooking on an alternative IndiGo service, a credit shell for future travel or a refund, subject to Indian regulations and the airline’s policies. Passengers are advised to monitor their booking status closely, check messages and emails from the airline, and contact IndiGo or their travel agent promptly to secure the best available alternative.

Q10. Will this crisis change IndiGo’s future growth plans?
The disruption has already forced IndiGo to prioritize operational resilience over rapid expansion in the short term. While the airline is unlikely to abandon its long-term growth ambitions in India’s booming aviation market, it is expected to adopt more conservative scheduling, invest more heavily in pilot recruitment and training, and maintain larger buffers in crew and aircraft planning to prevent a repeat of this month’s network-wide breakdown.