New Delhi: Indian air travel is facing one of its most severe meltdowns as IndiGo, the country’s largest airline, continues to grapple with a massive operational crisis stemming from crew shortages. The disruption, which has been escalating since the beginning of the month, led to the cancellation of over one thousand flights on Friday alone, crippling the movement of hundreds of thousands of passengers across major metropolitan hubs.
On Friday, the airline took the drastic step of cancelling all domestic departures from Delhi Airport for the entire day in an effort to reset its severely strained flight schedule. The chaos continued into Saturday, with sources reporting more than four hundred additional cancellations across four major airports: Bengaluru accounted for 124 scrapped flights, Mumbai 109, Delhi 106, and Hyderabad 66, leaving thousands of travelers stranded and leading to scenes of exhaustion and frustration in airport terminals nationwide.
The primary cause of the disruption is IndiGo’s admitted miscalculation of crew requirements following the full implementation of the revised Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on November 1, 2025. These safety regulations sharply increased the mandatory weekly rest period for pilots from 36 to 48 hours and drastically cut the number of permitted night landings from six to two per week. IndiGo, whose business model relies on high aircraft and crew utilisation, particularly through late-night operations, was acutely impacted by these stricter limits.
In response to the unprecedented operational failure, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has acted on two fronts. Firstly, the government has taken serious note of the subsequent market opportunism, where airfares on competing airlines had skyrocketed, with some last-minute economy tickets crossing forty thousand rupees on key routes. To shield the traveling public, the Ministry has invoked its regulatory powers and issued an official directive mandating all airlines adhere to prescribed fare caps on affected routes until the situation fully stabilises. This measure is intended to prevent the financial exploitation of passengers, including senior citizens and those traveling for urgent medical reasons.
Secondly, the DGCA has granted IndiGo a temporary, one-time exemption from certain night duty-related FDTL provisions for its Airbus A320 fleet until February 10, 2026. This relaxation allows the airline to operate under modified rules to ease the immediate crew pressure. However, the decision has drawn criticism from pilot associations, who argue that the selective dispensation compromises aviation safety standards designed to protect against fatigue-related incidents.
IndiGo’s CEO, Pieter Elbers, issued a public apology, stating that the crisis had “shaken customers’ belief in IndiGo’s reliability.” The airline is now offering automatic full refunds and a complete waiver on cancellation and rescheduling requests for travel between December 5 and 15. IndiGo has informed the DGCA that while the situation should improve in the coming days, full operational normalcy is not expected to be restored until February 10, 2026. The DGCA has mandated that the airline submit fortnightly progress reports on crew utilisation and its roadmap for achieving full FDTL compliance.