India’s largest airline, IndiGo, is clawing its way back to stability after a December meltdown that saw thousands of flights cancelled across the country. While the carrier says normal operations have broadly resumed and daily cancellations are down from early month peaks, the network shock continues to ripple through domestic schedules and some international connections, leaving passengers facing lingering unpredictability in the days ahead.

More News:

From Early December Chaos to Gradual Stabilisation

The disruption began in earnest around 2 December 2025, when IndiGo started cancelling hundreds of flights a day as a crew shortage collided with new flight duty time limitation rules for pilots.

By 5 December, cancellations had spiked to around 1,600 in a single day, according to official and media tallies, paralysing operations at key hubs including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Over roughly ten days, nearly 4,500 IndiGo flights were cancelled nationwide, representing one of the most severe operational crises in Indian aviation in recent years.

As the cancellations mounted, on-time performance collapsed. Data cited by India’s aviation ministry showed IndiGo’s punctuality dropping into the teens on some days, far below its typical performance and that of its rivals.

Thousands of passengers were stranded or forced into last-minute rebooking and long queues as airport terminals struggled to absorb the shock. The disruption hit during India’s busy winter and wedding travel season, amplifying the sense of chaos and frustration at crowded terminals.

Under pressure from regulators, the government and public anger, IndiGo scrambled to reboot its operation. By 6 December, the airline said it had restored about 95 percent of its network and expected a “fresh start” with over 1,500 flights operating that day.

In subsequent days, the carrier reported steady improvements while continuing to cancel several hundred flights as it rebalanced crew rosters and schedules. By around 9 December, IndiGo said all flights published on its website were scheduled to operate on an adjusted, more realistic network.

Today, as the December travel rush continues, that emergency rescheduling is largely in place. However, the residue of the earlier disruption is still visible in thinner frequencies on some routes, altered departure times and persistent passenger wariness about last-minute changes, even though the scale of mass cancellations seen in the first week of December has sharply reduced.

Regulatory Scrutiny and Temporary Rule Changes

The depth of the disruption has prompted an unusually strong regulatory response. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation opened a formal probe into IndiGo’s handling of the transition to stricter crew-rest rules and ordered the airline to show cause as to why action should not be taken.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation also convened a panel to examine how the meltdown unfolded and what safeguards might prevent a repeat at IndiGo or other carriers.

At the heart of the crisis sit new crew duty and rest regulations, introduced in phases from 1 November, intended to improve pilot welfare and safety. IndiGo, which operates more than 2,200 flights a day and carries nearly two out of three domestic passengers, struggled to align its schedules, staffing and training pipelines with the tightened limits.

Analysts and pilot groups have argued that the airline’s lean scheduling and aggressive utilisation left little slack when the rules changed, triggering a cascade of cancellations once crew were no longer legally able to operate planned rotations.

In an effort to stabilise the network for the broader travelling public, the regulator responded by granting IndiGo a temporary relaxation of some of the new limits until February 2026, while also reducing the carrier’s slot allocation for the winter season.

Officials have framed the move as a balancing act between protecting safety standards and avoiding further system-wide disruption at India’s busiest airports, where IndiGo’s dominance means its problems quickly affect airport congestion and connectivity for other airlines.

Authorities have also ordered the airline to complete pending refunds expediently and have moved to cap fares on certain routes, seeking to curb price spikes as seats became scarce during the height of the cancellations.

For now, regulators say they are monitoring IndiGo’s performance closely, with the expectation that the carrier will use the temporary flexibility to rebuild a more sustainable roster and schedule rather than rush back to previous utilisation levels.

Lingering Network Instability for Domestic Travellers

Although IndiGo insists that its scheduled flights are now operating on a stabilised network, Indian domestic travellers are still encountering signs of strain. Same-day and short-notice cancellations have fallen from the early-December highs but remain elevated compared with typical off-peak periods, particularly from fog-prone northern hubs where weather disruptions stack on top of recent crew and schedule issues.

On some days, Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport has seen dozens of delays and a handful of cancellations attributed partly to dense fog and partly to operational knock-on effects.

Travel agents in major metros report that while widespread chaos has eased, they are continuing to field complaints about sudden retimings, tight connection windows and occasional cancellations on secondary routes.

Some passengers have found that flights booked weeks in advance are rescheduled to earlier or later departures as IndiGo continues to fine-tune its rosters and aircraft rotations. Others have arrived at the airport to discover that a flight has been combined with another service, leading to longer layovers or different routings than originally planned.

The result is a climate of uncertainty that is particularly challenging for time-sensitive domestic travellers, including business passengers and those heading to weddings or religious events.

While alternative carriers have absorbed some displaced demand, India’s market structure means many city pairs are most efficiently served by IndiGo, leaving passengers with limited options if a flight does not operate as scheduled. This is especially true on early-morning and late-night services, which remain more vulnerable when crew and aircraft reserves are thin.

For now, industry observers say travellers should expect a somewhat choppy experience on parts of the domestic network through the end of the month, even if the most dramatic scenes of stranded crowds and airport bottlenecks are unlikely to recur unless another shock hits the system.

Impact on International Connections and Transit Passengers

IndiGo’s operational crisis has also had consequences beyond India’s borders, particularly for passengers using the airline’s domestic legs to connect to and from international services.

While IndiGo itself focuses largely on short and medium haul routes, its flights feed major Gulf carriers and other international airlines at hubs such as Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru. When domestic sectors were cancelled or delayed earlier this month, many passengers missed onward international departures or faced long delays in reaching their final destinations.

Even as the domestic schedule stabilises, some of those vulnerabilities remain. Thinner frequencies on particular city pairs mean fewer backup options if a domestic leg runs late, and slightly reduced slack in the schedule can make tight connections more precarious.

For example, passengers flying from smaller tier-two cities to connect with late-evening departures to the Middle East or Southeast Asia may find themselves rebooked onto earlier domestic flights than they would normally choose, in order to build in extra buffer time.

Fog-related disruptions at Delhi have compounded the challenge in recent days, as low visibility and air traffic control constraints ripple across departure and arrival banks.

With IndiGo still rebalancing its network and other Indian carriers facing their own seasonal pressures, travellers with complex itineraries involving multiple carriers are being advised by agents to leave additional time between flights, and, where possible, to avoid very tight minimum connection times for the remainder of the winter schedule.

IndiGo has said it is prioritising the integrity of its international connections in its current scheduling decisions, including through tactical use of wet-leased aircraft on some longer routes.

However, recent government decisions limiting the period during which these foreign-crewed aircraft can operate into next year mean that the carrier will eventually need to rely more heavily on its own fleet and crew, adding another layer of complexity to its medium-term planning.

Passenger Protections, Refunds and Compensation Efforts

As cancellations surged in early December, IndiGo moved to soften the blow for affected customers. The airline issued public apologies and launched a programme of full refunds, rebookings and travel vouchers for those whose flights were cancelled between roughly 5 and 15 December.

In many cases, passengers were offered hotel accommodation or meals if they were stranded overnight or faced long wait times at airports, particularly at major hubs where check-in lines and baggage backlogs became acute.

However, the scale and speed of the disruption meant that implementation was uneven. Social media and local news carried reports of passengers struggling to locate IndiGo staff, facing long phone and chat wait times, or receiving conflicting information about whether they qualified for refunds or vouchers.

Baggage mishandling became a particular pain point, with thousands of bags reportedly separated from their owners and only gradually reunited as operations stabilised. IndiGo now says that almost all delayed bags have been delivered, with only a small number still outstanding.

India’s current aviation consumer protection framework does not mandate the same automatic cash compensation levels commonly seen in some Western markets, but regulators have insisted that IndiGo must at minimum process refunds promptly and avoid charging fees for voluntary changes linked to the disruption.

Travel industry groups have urged the government to use the crisis as a catalyst for strengthening passenger rights, especially in cases where operational issues, rather than weather or security events, lead to widespread cancellations.

For travellers, the practical advice remains to keep detailed records of communications with the airline, retain boarding passes and receipts for any out-of-pocket expenses, and pursue claims promptly.

Many passengers have successfully obtained refunds or vouchers, but the volume of cases means some are still awaiting resolution. Those planning imminent travel have been advised to monitor their booking status closely in the week leading up to departure, rather than assuming that a stabilising network eliminates all risk of change.

What IndiGo’s Crisis Means for India’s Aviation Future

The December disruption has opened a wider debate about the resilience of India’s aviation system at a time of rapid growth in domestic air travel. IndiGo’s dominant market share, extensive network and historically reliable operations have made it the backbone of connectivity in a country where alternatives such as rail can be time consuming on long routes.

The crisis has highlighted how heavily the system leans on one carrier, and how quickly a failure of planning or an external shock can ripple across the entire travel ecosystem.

Analysts note that IndiGo has enjoyed strong financial performance and aggressive expansion in recent years, adding aircraft and destinations at a fast clip. The new crew duty rules, which were aimed at improving pilot safety and reducing fatigue, intersected with that expansion in a way that exposed weaknesses in the airline’s crew planning and its ability to absorb regulatory change.

Critics, including some pilot associations, argue that management underestimated the impact of the new rules and failed to build adequate buffers into the schedule ahead of time.

For policymakers, the episode raises questions about how to balance worker welfare, passenger rights and industry competitiveness. On one hand, relaxing recently introduced safety-related rules to address a crisis carries clear risks if it encourages airlines to underprepare for future transitions.

On the other, allowing an uncontrolled network collapse by the country’s largest carrier would have immediate economic and social costs, particularly during peak travel seasons. The temporary nature of the exemptions, and the accompanying slot reductions and fare caps, suggest regulators are attempting to craft incentives for more prudent planning without triggering another round of cancellations.

Over the medium term, the IndiGo crisis may accelerate calls for greater diversification of India’s airline market, investment in crew training pipelines and better coordination between regulators and carriers before major operational changes.

For now, though, passengers are experiencing the immediate aftermath: quieter check-in halls than during the worst of the chaos, but a lingering sense that reliability cannot be taken for granted as the winter season runs its course.

Practical Advice for Travellers Flying IndiGo Now

For travellers with IndiGo tickets in the coming days and weeks, the message from agents and aviation experts is to proceed with plans but build in extra margin for uncertainty. The airline’s schedule has largely normalised, and the probability of the extreme mass cancellations seen in early December has diminished.

However, residual schedule adjustments, winter weather and tight crew utilisation mean that some level of disruption risk remains, particularly on early-morning departures from northern India and on heavily utilised trunk routes.

Passengers are being advised to check their flight status regularly, starting several days before departure and again on the day of travel. Enrolling in airline alerts and saving local airport contact details can help ensure timely information if there is a last-minute time change or gate shift.

Travellers connecting from IndiGo domestic legs to international flights, whether on IndiGo’s own services or interline partners, should consider allowing more generous connection windows than they might in more stable periods.

Those with flexible schedules may wish to avoid the most congested times of day, such as early morning and late evening banks at Delhi and Mumbai, where weather, air traffic congestion and residual rostering issues are more likely to combine.

When practical, selecting flights earlier in the day can provide more recovery options if a cancellation occurs, as airlines have additional departures and rebooking possibilities before the end-of-day curfew at some airports.

Finally, travellers should review the latest passenger support measures from IndiGo at the time of booking, including rules on free changes, refund eligibility and voucher schemes, which may evolve as the airline moves from crisis response into a more normal operating environment. Understanding these policies in advance can reduce stress if plans are disrupted at short notice.

FAQ

Q1: Is IndiGo still cancelling large numbers of flights in late December 2025?
IndiGo’s cancellations have reduced significantly from the early December peak, when up to 1,600 flights a day were grounded. The airline now reports operating the vast majority of its published schedule, though some cancellations and retimings continue as it fine tunes rosters and deals with seasonal weather.

Q2: What caused the IndiGo disruption in the first place?
The crisis stemmed from IndiGo’s difficulty in adjusting its schedules and crew planning to stricter pilot duty and rest rules introduced by the regulator from 1 November, combined with existing crew shortages, occasional technical issues and winter congestion at major airports.

Q3: Are domestic routes in India back to normal for IndiGo passengers?
Most domestic routes are operating again, but some still have reduced frequencies, altered timings or occasional last minute changes. Travellers are seeing fewer mass cancellations but may still experience delays or schedule shifts, especially during busy periods or poor weather.

Q4: How are international connections being affected?
International passengers using IndiGo for domestic feeder flights have been impacted by delays and cancellations, particularly earlier in December. While the situation has improved, tight connections remain risky, and many agents recommend longer layovers for India domestic to international transfers for the rest of the winter season.

Q5: What support is IndiGo offering to affected passengers?
IndiGo has been providing full refunds, rebooking options, travel vouchers and, in some cases, hotel and meal support for passengers whose flights were cancelled during the disruption period. Customers affected now are still generally offered rebooking or refunds, though specific terms can vary by fare type and situation.

Q6: Has the Indian aviation regulator taken action against IndiGo?
The regulator has launched a probe, issued a show cause notice, temporarily relaxed some crew duty rules specifically for IndiGo, reduced its winter slots and asked the airline to expedite refunds. Authorities say they are monitoring the carrier closely and may consider further steps depending on its performance.

Q7: Are ticket prices higher because of the disruption?
During the height of the cancellations, fares on some routes spiked as capacity shrank and demand remained strong. Regulators responded with fare caps on selected sectors. Prices have begun to ease as more flights return, but travellers on busy routes or peak dates may still see elevated fares compared with earlier in the year.

Q8: How long are the temporary rule relaxations in place for IndiGo?
The temporary easing of certain crew duty and rest limitations granted to IndiGo is currently set to run until around February 2026. Regulators expect the airline to use this window to rebuild a resilient roster rather than rely on ongoing exemptions.

Q9: What should I do if my IndiGo flight is cancelled at short notice?
If your flight is cancelled, contact IndiGo through its app, website or airport counter as soon as possible to seek rebooking or a refund. Keep records of all communications and receipts for any extra expenses. If you booked through a travel agent or online platform, they may also assist with alternative arrangements.

Q10: Is it safe to book future travel on IndiGo?
Safety has not been in question during this crisis, which has centred on scheduling and staffing rather than aircraft airworthiness. IndiGo remains India’s largest carrier and is operating most of its network. However, until winter operations fully stabilise, passengers should factor in a slightly higher risk of schedule changes and plan accordingly.