The government on Thursday (January 22, 2026) asked airlines to submit their requests for operating domestic flights on the slots vacated by IndiGo, following the curtailment of the winter schedule in the wake of the December operational disruptions, according to an official communication.

Between December 3 and 5 last year, IndiGo cancelled 2,507 flights and 1,852 flights were delayed, impacting over 3 lakh passengers at airports across the country.

Following the massive disruptions, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) reduced IndiGo’s winter schedule by 10%, which meant the airline had stopped operating services in various slots.

The Civil Aviation Ministry’s communication said the committee on redistribution of the vacated IndiGo slots held its first meeting on January 13, wherein the process and principles for redistribution were discussed.

Following the deliberations, the panel had now asked airlines to submit their requests and preferences for the vacated slots, subject to various conditions, it added.

As per the communication, the airlines have to send their requests for the vacated slots to the airport operators concerned and the final decision on the redistribution of the slots.

Among other conditions, the interested airlines should not discontinue their existing routes to utilise the vacated slots.

“No one [airline] wants to take their [IndiGo’s] slots. They are not leaving anything except the red-eye flights, which no one wants to take. At the most, they are leaving one flight from a station where they have six flights. No one, in fact, is interested in insignificant slots, which they are vacating [after the government slashed their winter schedule by 10%],” an airline industry executive said.

IndiGo is the country’s largest airline that operates over 2,000 flights daily.

DGCA slaps fine

On January 17, the DGCA announced slapping of fines totalling ₹22.20 crore for the December flight disruptions and had also warned CEO Pieter Elbers and two other senior executives for the lapses.

It also directed the airline to furnish a ₹50-crore bank guarantee to ensure long-term systemic corrections.

The watchdog, on January 20, said the disruptions stemmed from mismanagement of adequate flight crew, inadequate regulatory preparedness at the operator level, and shortcomings in system software support, management structure, and operational control.

“The airline’s planning processes did not adequately identify operational deficiencies or maintain sufficient operational buffers. There was an overriding focus on maximising utilisation of crew, aircraft, and network resources, which led to reduced roster buffer margins.

“Crew rosters were designed to operate at the limits of permissible duty periods, with increased reliance on dead-heading, tail swaps, extended duty patterns, and minimal recovery margins. This approach compromised roster integrity and operational resilience and adversely impacted the effective implementation of the revised FDTL provisions,” it had said in a statement.

On Thursday (January 22), IndiGo reported a 78% decline in profit at ₹549.1 crore for the three months ended December 2025 as higher expenses crimped the bottom line.

Apart from operational disruptions, implementation of the new labour laws and currency movements took a toll on the quarterly profit despite higher revenues.

Domestic carrier SpiceJet on Wednesday (December 10, 2025) said it is planning to introduce up to 100 additional daily flights during the current winter schedule.

The airline said it is looking to ramp up its flight operations amid the growing demand across key routes this winter, and also to ensure adequate capacity in the market.

The statement came a day after the government announced a 10% cut in IndiGo’s winter schedule in a bid to help the crisis-hit airline stabilise its operations and lead to reduced cancellations following the large-scale disruptions that started on December 1.

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“As part of this [ramping up operations] effort, we plan to introduce up to 100 additional daily flights during the current winter schedule, subject to regulatory approvals,” SpiceJet said in a statement.

Under the current winter schedule, SpiceJet has been allowed to operate 1,568 flights per week or 224 per day, which is 20.89% higher compared to 1,297 flights per week, operated by the carrier during the last winter.

IndiGo crisis: Delhi HC tells airline to begin passenger compensation, flags surge in airfares

As compared to the summer schedule (1,240 flights per week) of this year, the growth is 26.45%.

SpiceJet said in the past two months it has inducted 17 aircraft into active operations through a mix of damp lease and the return of its own aircraft to service.

“This enhanced fleet availability gives us the operational flexibility to deploy incremental capacity on high-demand routes and improve overall network resilience,” the airline said.

SpiceJet had a total of 32 aircraft – 28 Boeing 737 and 4 regional jets – in operations while 36 on ground as on December 9, as per aircraft fleet tracking website, planespotter.net.

This is up from 18 aircraft, which were in operations, as on September 30.

“Our focus in the current schedule period is to add several more aircraft, maximise aircraft utilisation and strengthen connectivity through better planning,” SpiceJet added.

Officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and the Airports Authority of India met with the Prime Minister’s Office late Tuesday (December 9, 2025) evening to discuss IndiGo’s recent flight disruptions and review measures for redressing passenger complaints related to refunds, missing baggage, and crowd management at airports.

The meeting followed Minister of Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu meeting IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers, who was summoned the Ministry following which he ordered 10% of flight cancellations as well as focused on the airline’s response in dealing with passenger issues due to the cancellation of over 5,000 flights  since November. 

Also read | Could IndiGo have hired more pilots to prevent the crisis? 

The airline has decided to remove 400 to 500 flights in order to stabilise its flight schedule or double what the government has ordered. 

An airline official said passengers would now be informed at least 72 hours in advance in case of flight cancellations — a process that had failed over the past week due to a system-wide breakdown. As a result, many passengers reached airports only to find their flights delayed for hours and eventually cancelled, leading to overcrowding and angry confrontations with IndiGo ground staff.

The airline is now operating a total of 1,800 daily flights out of the total of nearly 2,200-2,300 flights. 

The airline has issued refunds of ₹829 crore to passengers in refunds and 4,500 of the 9,000 missing bags had been delivered to their customers.

Indian low-cost airline IndiGo has decided to cut 400-500 flights to achieve “full stabilisation of schedule” to ensure passengers can fly with certainty.

Editorial: Chaos foretold: on the Indigo crisis, air safety

The airline will now operate 1,800-1,900 flights instead of 2,300 flights it used to operate daily.

The decision comes hours after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) ordered IndiGo to slash 5%, or nearly 115 flights, “as it failed to demonstrate the ability to operate all its flights”.

In a recorded video statement, the company’s CEO Pieter Elbers said the airline’s operations are “fully stabilised which means the flights reflecting on our website are scheduled to operate with an adjusted network”.

Passengers will be intimated about cancellations 72 hours in advance, officials told The Hindu.

As of yesterday (December 8), we are back to flying to all the 138 destinations in our network and our on-time-performance (OTP) is also normalised, Mr. Elbers said.

IndiGo had earlier informed the DGCA and the Ministry of Civil Aviation that the disruptions stemmed from “planning gaps and a misjudgment” in estimating crew requirements under the government’s revised norms governing night flying for pilots, including for the first time capping the number of landings allowed per night shift to two in response to concerns over mounting fatigue.

As per the airline’s own submission, it currently has 65 fewer captains than required — 2,357 available against the 2,422 needed to comply with the new rule that came into effect from November 1 and snowballed into a major crisis for the airline a month later.

Civil Aviation Minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu on Monday (December 8, 2025) said the government will curtail IndiGo’s winter flight schedule and allocate them to other operators following the airline’s recent large-scale operational disruptions.

“We will curtail IndiGo’s routes. They are currently operating 2,200 flights. We will definitely curtail them,” Mr. Naidu told Doordarshan news channel.

The Minister also said that refunds worth ₹745 crore have been given for 7,30,655 cancelled PNRs from December 1 to 8 (as of 5 pm).

Besides this, he said that 6,000 of the 9,000 passenger bags have already been delivered, and the remaining ones are scheduled to be delivered by either by Monday night or Tuesday (December 9) morning.

The Supreme Court on Monday (December 8, 2025) refused to accord urgent hearing to a plea seeking judicial intervention into cancellation of hundreds of flights by IndiGo, saying the Centre has taken note of the situation and has taken steps to address it.

The Supreme Court said it was cognizant of the fact that lakhs of people are stranded at various airports.

“It is a serious matter. Lakhs of people are stranded at the airports. We know that the government of India has taken timely action and cognizance of the issue. We know people may have health issues and other important issues etc.,” Chief Justice Surya Kant, who was heading a Bench comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi, said.

A lawyer mentioned the issue and said there have been a lot of flight cancellations by IndiGo over the last few days and passengers are suffering.

“The cancellations are not informed to the flyers,” he said, adding that around 2,500 flights are delayed and customers are suffering at 95 airports across the country.

Over 250 IndiGo flights from Delhi and Bengaluru airports were cancelled on Monday (December 8, 2025) as the disruptions of the airline’s flight operations entered the seventh day, sources told PTI.

At the Delhi airport, 134 flights were cancelled — 75 departures and 59 arrivals — while at the Bengaluru airport, the carrier cancelled 117 services — 65 arrivals and 62 departures.

IndiGo has been facing heat from both the government and the passengers for cancelling hundreds of flights since December 2, citing regulatory changes in the pilots’ flight duty and regulations norms. The disruptions have left lakhs of passengers stranded at airports across the country.