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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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).