IndiGo flights. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Over the last decade, India’s skies have grown busier than ever. The country has emerged as the world’s third-largest domestic aviation market, driven by rapid economic growth, rising middle-class travel and expanding regional connectivity. However, while the number of airports has surged, the number of airlines has shrunk, making IndiGo virtually synonymous with air travel in India.

According to government data, the number of operational airports increased from 74 in 2014 to 163 in 2025. The government has set an ambitious target of expanding this network to 350–400 airports by 2047. Aviation has also become one of the fastest-growing sectors of the economy, contributing not only through air transport services but also by boosting tourism, trade, logistics and manufacturing.

Yet, the structure of the market has become increasingly concentrated. As per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), IndiGo currently commands a dominant 65% share of the domestic market. The Air India Group — comprising Air India and Air India Express — holds 26%, while Akasa Air has 5%, maintaining its position as the third-largest domestic carrier. SpiceJet accounts for just 2%, with all other airlines together making up the remaining 2%.

Several national and regional carriers have struggled to survive in what is often described as the world’s fastest-growing aviation market. The collapse of Jet Airways earlier and Go First in May 2023 further accelerated consolidation, allowing IndiGo to significantly expand its footprint.

This dominance, however, has come under scrutiny following recent mass cancellations of IndiGo flights that caused widespread disruption to air traffic across the country. Regulators observed that the airline had failed to adequately manage its operational resources, including aircraft availability and pilot crew planning.

In response, authorities decided that IndiGo’s approved winter schedule should be reviewed and curtailed by at least 10%. The existing show-cause notice to the airline is set to be modified, with a fresh notice likely to be issued. The situation will remain under periodic review for any further action deemed necessary.

The issue was also raised in the Rajya Sabha on December 8, where Civil Aviation Minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu said the government would take “very, very strict action” against IndiGo to “set an example” for the industry. Speaking during Question Hour, the Minister said the disruption stemmed from IndiGo’s internal lapses, particularly its failure to manage crew availability and duty rosters.

“We are not taking this situation easily. We are doing an inquiry. We will take very, very strict action not only for this situation but also as an example,” he said.

Mr. Naidu also outlined the implementation of revised Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms, introduced following a High Court order in April 2025. Of the 22 guidelines, 15 were implemented from July 1 and the remaining seven from November 1. He stressed that the rules were framed after extensive consultations with all stakeholders, including IndiGo, and must be followed “without any compromise on safety”. The updated FDTL norms represent a significant tightening of crew scheduling regulations. Pilots are now mandated 48 hours of weekly rest, compared to the previous rule of 36 hours, and night landings have been limited to two from six earlier.

Chairman of the IndiGo airline board chairman Vikram Singh Mehta, in his message to air passengers, rejected the allegations that the crisis was engineered and that the airline tried to influence the government over the revised Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules. 

Flight safety

While airlines argue these measures disrupt roster planning and aircraft utilisation, especially at hubs with heavy night operations, pilot unions maintain that the caps are essential to reduce cumulative fatigue and enhance flight safety.

Financial data highlights the stark contrast within the sector. In a written reply, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said IndiGo was the only major airline to post a profit in FY 2024–25, earning ₹7,253 crore. Air India reported a loss of ₹3,976 crore, Air India Express ₹5,832 crore, Akasa Air ₹1,986 crore and Alliance Air ₹691 crore. SpiceJet also remained in the red with a ₹56-crore loss, while regional carrier Star Air was a rare exception, posting a modest profit of ₹68 crore. Air India is currently undergoing a massive transformation after being taken over by the Tata Group in 2022, while Go First remains grounded after suspending operations in 2023 due to severe financial stress.

Meanwhile, IndiGo continues to plan aggressively for the future. The airline has placed a firm order for 500 Airbus A320 Family aircraft — the largest single aircraft order ever placed by any airline with Airbus. These deliveries, scheduled between 2030 and 2035, will further strengthen IndiGo’s scale and long-term growth prospects.

Amid regulatory action, IndiGo has said operations are stabilising. Demonstrating “continuous operational normalisation” over the past five days, the airline said it is operating over 2,050 flights a day under its revised, scaled-down schedule in line with government directives. All 138 operational destinations remain connected, and on-time performance has returned to normal levels, according to an IndiGo spokesperson.

As India’s aviation sector continues its rapid expansion, the current episode underscores the challenges of balancing growth, safety, competition and accountability in an increasingly consolidated market.

Published – December 14, 2025 01:54 am IST

Passengers will be intimated about cancellations 72 hours in advance, officials say. File
| Photo Credit: B. Velankanni Raj

Union Minister of Civil Aviation Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu discusses the ongoing disruptions caused by the delays and cancellations of IndiGo flights, in New Delhi. File.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Airfares between Mangaluru and other important cities, including Mumbai, have almost tripled even as the Union Civil Aviation Ministry ordered keeping the flight duty time limitations (FDTL) orders of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in abeyance with immediate effect, on Friday.

Mangaluru International Airport, in a statement here, said 18 flights, nine each arrivals and departures of IndiGo, were cancelled on Friday.

For travel on Sunday, the fares on Mumbai-Mangaluru-Mumbai sector shot up to ₹25,000 as against the normal average fares of ₹6,000 to ₹8,000, said Yeshwant Kadri, a Mangaluru resident. Similarly, the fares on Bengaluru-Mangaluru-Bengaluru sector rose to about ₹18,000 as against the normal average of ₹3,000 to ₹6,000 for Sunday, he said. Air India Express was the lone carrier operating the services, he added.

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Stranded passengers search for their luggage near a counter after IndiGo cancelled more than 400 flights, at the Kempegowda International Airport, in Bengaluru, Karnataka, on December 5, 2025.
| Photo Credit: PTI

The Pilots’ body Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has alleged that IndiGo, despite getting a two-year preparatory window before the full implementation of new flight duty and rest period norms for cockpit crew, “inexplicably” adopted a “hiring freeze.”

The FIP said it has urged the safety regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), not to approve airlines’ seasonal flight schedules unless they have adequate staff to operate their services “safely and reliably” under the new Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms.

In a letter to the DGCA, FIP urged to consider re-evaluating and reallocating slots to other airlines, which have the capacity to operate them without disruption during the peak holiday and fog season if IndiGo continues to “fail in delivering on its commitments to passengers due to its own avoidable staffing shortages.” On Wednesday (December 3, 2025), IndiGo cancelled over 150 flights and delayed hundreds by considerable time across various airports due to multiple reasons, including crew shortages resulting from the implementation of the new FDTL norms.

Only 19.7% IndiGo flights arrived and departed on time from six major airports on Wednesday, according to the Civil Aviation Ministry website.

The pilots’ body also said it would like to categorically clarify that the recent spate of IndiGo flight cancellations cannot be attributed to the Delhi High Court-mandated FDTL regulations for pilots.

“All other airlines have provisioned pilots adequately and remain largely unaffected due to timely planning and preparation,” it said, adding “the current disruption is the direct consequence of IndiGo’s prolonged and unorthodox lean manpower strategy across departments, particularly in-flight operations.”

The pilots’ body alleged that “despite the two-year preparatory window before full FDTL implementation, the airline inexplicably adopted a hiring freeze, entered non-poaching arrangements, maintained a pilot pay freeze through cartel-like behaviour, and demonstrated other short-sighted planning practices.

FIP further added that it “strongly advocates that the DGCA must approve seasonal flight schedules only after airlines prove they have adequate pilot strength under the new FDTL norms to operate safely and reliably”.

Following the rollout of phase 1 of the FDTL on July 1, the FIP alleged that “IndiGo reduced pilot leave quotas, and after phase 2 on November 1, attempted to buy back pilot leave. These measures saw poor response and further damaged pilot and employee morale, especially in a year when airline executives took home record increments approaching or exceeding 100%, while simultaneously blaming pilot migration instead of investing in retention and workplace improvements,” FIP noted.

With the onset of the busy winter fog season, which naturally demands higher pilot availability, IndiGo still expanded its winter schedule “without recruiting or training additional pilots”, raising serious questions about operational responsibility, it stated in the letter.

In line with international regulations, the Indian aviation safety regulator approves two schedules, winter (late October to late March) and summer (late March to late October) for the domestic airlines.

The Gurugram-based airline has received approval for 15,014 flights per week for the ongoing winter schedule, up almost 10% from 13.691 flights per week that it operated last winter.

The latest FDTL norms, which entail increased weekly rest periods to 48 hours, extended night hours, and limiting the number of night landings to only two, as against six earlier, were initially opposed by domestic airlines, including IndiGo and Tata Group-owned Air India.

But they were subsequently rolled out by the DGCA following the Delhi High Court’s directives, albeit with a delay of over one year, in a phased manner, and with certain variations for airlines like IndiGo and Air India.

While the first phase of these FDTL norms came into force in July, the second phase, which reduced the number of night landings from six to two earlier, was implemented from November 1.

The norms were originally to be put in place from March 2024, but airlines, including IndiGo, sought a step-by-step implementation, citing additional crew requirements.

Published – December 04, 2025 12:28 pm IST

Over 76,000 passengers of budget carrier IndiGo were affected due to the airline cancelling its flights or delaying them by more than two hours in September, while Tata-owned Air India denied boarding to 450 passengers during the month, DGCA data revealed on Thursday.

According to the data, India’s domestic air passenger traffic grew 29.10 percent at 1.22 crore in September, against 1.03 crore in the same month of the last year, with IndiGo commanding a whopping 63.4 percent of the total traffic.

Of the total 76,612 total passengers affected, 50,945 passengers were affected after IndiGo cancelled its flights altogether in September, while another 25,667 passengers were affected due to the Gurugram-based budget airline delaying its flights by more than two hours during the month, according to data.

At the same time, while it provided alternative flights and full refunds to the passengers affected by flight cancellations, the airline served only refreshments to the passengers for the delayed (by more than two hours) flights, The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data revealed.

Significantly, as many as 46 of its 334 aircraft are currently on the ground owing to various supply chain issues as of date, as per the aircraft fleet tracking website Planespotters.

Besides IndiGo, 24,758 passengers of Air India and another 24,635 passengers of SpiceJet were affected on account of their airlines delaying some of their flights by more than two hours in September, as per data.

However, Air India offered them flights on other airlines, served them refreshment and lunch and spent Rs 5.27 lakh on facilitation, as part of mitigating efforts.

SpiceJet on its part, spent Rs 45.78 lakh on facilitation of passengers besides providing them alternative flights and refreshments, according to DGCA.

Meanwhile, maintaining its leadership in the domestic air passenger traffic, IndiGo flew 77.70 lakh passengers during September, followed by Vistara (12.29 lakh passengers), Air India (11.97-lakh passengers), respectively.

Vistara and Air India had a market share of 10 per cent and 9.8 per cent, respectively, during the previous month, as per DGCA data.

Air India subsidiary AirAsia India, which has now become AiX Connect, transported 8.16 lakh passengers with a 6.7 per cent market share.

The two other no-frills carriers — SpiceJet and Akasa Air, carried 5.45 lakh and 5.17-lakh passengers on their flights, respectively, with a market share of 4.4 per cent and 4.2 per cent, during September, as per DGCA data.

IndiGo delivered the highest on-time performance at 83.6 per cent from four key airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — in the previous month, while Vistara had 92 per cent load factor on its planes, the highest among all domestic airlines during the month, the DGCA data showed.