Fair trade watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) is examining whether the country’s largest airline, IndiGo, violated competition norms, a senior official said on Friday (December 12, 2025) amid the carrier facing regulatory scrutiny over significant flight disruptions.

IndiGo, which has a domestic market share of over 65%, cancelled hundreds of flights starting from December 2, causing hardships to thousands of passengers, and the situation is stabilising now.

While aviation safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is probing the flight disruptions apart from stepping up the scrutiny of IndiGo’s operations, there are concerns in certain quarters on whether the airline’s dominant position could also have been a contributing factor.

The CCI is internally examining whether IndiGo violated competition norms, the senior official told PTI.

According to the official, various aspects, such as the overall dominant position, dominance in particular routes, and whether there is abuse of dominance, will be looked into.

There is no formal complaint against IndiGo so far, and the CCI is examining whether competition rules have been violated suo motu, the official added.

Section 4 of the Competition Act pertains to abuse of dominance that can be exploitative or exclusionary. Exploitative refers to acts such as excessive pricing, while denial of market access will fall under the exclusionary segment.

Under the norms, CCI first carries out a detailed examination of available information to reach a conclusion on whether there is prima facie evidence of competition norms violations.

Only when there is prima facie evidence of violations, the regulator orders a probe into the matter.

An entity being dominant is not anti-competitive, but if there is an abuse of the dominance, then it violates competition norms.

Lack of proper planning in implementing the new set of flight duty norms from November 1, 2025 is being attributed as a key factor for the operational disruptions at IndiGo, apart from other factors.

CCI works to prevent anti-competitive practices in the marketplace as well as to promote fair business ways.

Among other powers, the regulator can penalise and issue cease-and-desist orders to clamp down on unfair business practices across sectors.

Aviation safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has directed crisis-ridden IndiGo’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Pieter Elbers to appear at its office on Thursday (December 11, 2025) and submit a complete report, along with comprehensive data and updates, relating to the recent operational disruptions, a statement said on Wednesday (December 10).

Mr. Elbers has been asked to appear at the DGCA office at 3 p.m. on Thursday (December 11).

DGCA also said that the CEO, along with senior officials from all relevant departments, has been instructed to attend the meeting.

As per the regulator’s order, the airline has been asked to present information on the flight restoration, recruitment plan of pilots and crew, with updated position of pilot and cabin crew strength, number of flights cancelled and refunds processed, among others.

Following large-scale disruptions to its services, which resulted in thousands of flights being cancelled, delayed or rescheduled, the DGCA appointed a panel to probe the disruptions.

The four-member committee has been mandated to identify the root causes behind the operational breakdown. It comprises Joint D.G. (Director General) Sanjay Brahamane, Deputy Director General Amit Gupta, senior Flight Operations Inspector (FOI) Kapil Manglik, and FOI Lokesh Rampal. The panel will closely examine manpower planning, fluctuating crew rostering systems and the airline’s readiness to implement the latest duty period and rest norms for pilots.

Announced by DGCA chief Faiz Ahmed Kidwai on December 5, the panel will also review IndiGo’s compliance with the revised Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) provisions. This includes assessing gaps admitted by the airline and fixing accountability for planning failures that resulted in widespread disruptions.

The new flight duty regulations for pilots appear to be much more restrictive compared to other jurisdictions and it is a matter of time before things settle down, global airlines’ grouping International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) chief Willie Walsh said.

The comments also come against the backdrop of significant operational disruptions faced by India’s largest airline IndiGo in the past one week that had resulted in hundreds of flight cancellations and impacted thousands of passengers.

Lack of proper planning in implementing the second phase of the Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms that came into force from November 1 is one of the key reasons for the IndiGo flight disruptions which have almost stabilised now.

“The new Indian regulations appear to be much more restrictive than those in other jurisdictions but I think you have got to always recognise that regulators have a responsibility to ensure that the industry is safe and secure,” Mr. Walsh said.

“The changes have been implemented, I think for the right reasons. It is just a matter of time now before it settles down,” he said.

Chaos foretold: on the Indigo crisis, air safety

At a media roundtable in Geneva, Mr. Walsh also noted that the pilot fatigue norms is something that gets debated all the time in Europe and the U.S.

“India has decided that they want to take measures, particularly around potential fatigue around night time operations, which instinctively would have a greater impact on low-cost carriers, given their business model. It is disappointing that so many consumers have been impacted as a result of this change,” Mr. Walsh said.

IATA is a grouping of nearly 360 airlines that account for over 80% of the global air traffic and its members include IndiGo, Air India, Air India Express and SpiceJet.

Among other aspects, the second phase of the FDTL norms have restricted the number of night landings a pilot can make.

India’s Civil Aviation Ministry on Tuesday (December 9) announced curtailing IndiGo’s winter schedule flights by 10% in order to stabilise the operations.

“During the last week, many passengers faced severe inconvenience due to IndiGo’s internal mismanagement of crew rosters, flight schedules and inadequate communication,” Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said on Tuesday (December 9).

Major airports across the country descended into turmoil as IndiGo’s flight delays and cancellations continued to mount for the fourth consecutive day. With several hundred flights either delayed or cancelled, passengers have been left scrambling. Even as the airline issued an apology to customers and stakeholders, saying it “remains focused on streamlining its operations at the earliest,” over 400 IndiGo flights were reportedly cancelled on Friday (December 5, 2025) across several airports. On Thursday, the airline’s on-time performance at six metro airports dropped to 8.5%.  

What is causing the flight delays/cancellations?

Issuing several statements over the past few days, IndiGo has blamed several factors for the mass delays and cancellations. On Wednesday, the airline said “minor technology glitches, schedule changes linked to the winter season, adverse weather conditions, increased congestion in the aviation system and the implementation of updated crew rostering rules (FDTL) had a negative compounding impact on our operations in a way that was not feasible to be anticipated.”

This crisis though, was weeks in the making. As reported by The Hindu earlier, the airline’s skewed pilot planning and rostering, triggered by the full implementation of the stricter rest and duty norms from November 1, has led to ongoing travel chaos.

The new norms for pilot rest and duty hours — Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) — framed to combat concerns over mounting fatigue, against which airlines waged a two-year-long battle, were to be implemented in two phases as per a Delhi High Court order in April 2025. While a large number of provisions, including raising of weekly rest hours from 36 to 48 hours, were rolled out from July 1, the remaining provisions restricting the utilisation of pilots during night hours were to be implemented from November 1. The government had allowed airlines this additional time to help plan their crew requirement as they had warned of widespread flight cancellations.

“It is since the implementation of the latter that the airline has been grappling with shortages and making requests to pilots to cancel their leaves. But a brewing unrest for past many years means pilots are in no mood to co-operate. Being pushed to the upper limit of 13 hours of duty period allowed under DGCA norms, no salary hikes despite profits to the tune of ₹7,000 crore being posted by the airline, combined with the latest furore over the airline twisting the meaning of the new norms on pilot duty hours to its advantage. had angered them deeply,” The Hindu’s Jagriti Chandra had reported.

In a meeting with Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu and Faiz Kidwai, head of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), top IndiGo officials on Thursday (December 4), blamed “misjudgement and planning gaps” for the current situation. Further in a letter to his employees, IndiGo’s CEO Pieter Elbers explained that “given the size, scale and complexity of our network, these disruptions grow large immediately and require interventions on multiple levels”, which was being done.

When will normal operations resume?

The airline on Thursday had informed Civil Aviation Minister, and the DGCA Chief that it would curtail flights from December 8 to minimise flight disruptions, and delays and cancellations will continue for the next two to three days.

IndiGo has also sought exemption from implementing the norms on reduced night flying hours until February 10. The regulator has said it will review this demand from the airline.