New Delhi: 06-12-2025] The aviation sector in Bharat (India) has been currently experiencing crisis, as one of the country leading Airliner “IndiGo airlines” have cancelled 1000+ flights by keeping many passengers stranded and troubled at airports. Over the past fortnight, the airliner, which holds the largest air travel market share in the country, has witnessed a high number of cancelled flights, totalling over a thousand flights and leaving passengers stranded at key metropolitan airports including CCU Airport (Kolkata) and Kempegowda International Airport in Bangalore. This unplanned disruption has put a negative spotlight on the airline’s operational strength and its failure to adequately prepare for govt’s stricter safety and regulatory rules.
The main question “what happened to IndiGo” is this issue rooted due to higher crew shortage, a problem dramatically raised due to the recent “DGCA new rules” for flight crew’s health and safety.
“Reason for IndiGo Flights Operational disturbance, followed by FDTL and The Regulatory issues”
The base “reason for IndiGo’s current issues are included in the revised Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms mandated by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). These rules are not arbitrary, they are aligned with global best practices to reduce the pilot stress, a leading factor in aviation sector worldwide.
Stricter Safety Norms: The new FDTL rules, with the second phase taking effect on November 1, 2025, were designed to improve crew health and safety significantly. Key changes include increasing mandatory weekly offs from 36 hours to 48 hours and highly cutting permissible night landings from six to only two per week.
The Preparation Failure: Despite the DGCA providing a two-year preparatory window for airlines to adjust their rosters and increase recruitment, to the industry, and primarily to IndiGo, appears to have fallen short to comply. The airline’s massive fleet expansion and ambitious growth plans over the past two years, surprisingly lacking its ability to recruit and train sufficient flight crew to comply with the stricter weekly offs and staff rest requirements. Pilots and crew’s mandated for duty limits led to a sudden, uncontrollable, and cascading effect of delays, stranded many passengers and higher flight cancellation.
This regulatory mismatch has been dubbed by many as what is IndiGo flight issue: a systematic failure in resource planning. On the worst days, the airline was forced to cancel up to 20% of its daily schedule, with few regional sectors, including those touching CCU Airport, seeing cancellations as high as 80%.
Impact on Passengers and the ongoing Legal Case:
The consequences have been severe for consumers. Thousands of travellers in India faced missed connecting flights, ruined holiday plans, and financial losses due to non-refundable travel cancellation amounts. The public outrage, particularly on social media, has intensified the pressure on the government and the airline.
Compensation and Legal Scrutiny: The Ministry of Civil Aviation has come up and intervened immediately to ensure swift passenger relief. Passengers whose IndiGo flights were cancelled are legally entitled are to be compensation under the existing DGCA rules (specifically, Civil Aviation Requirement, Section 3, Series M, Part IV). Failure to provide timely refunds or alternate travel options may increased in IndiGo airlines flight cancellation and legal case, potentially leading to class-action lawsuits against the airline for “deficiency in service” under Indian consumer laws.
Is IndiGo Flight Issue Resolved? IndiGo Latest News
While the crisis is already at its peak, full operational stability remains a challenge for the Indian leading airliner.
Temporary Exemption to Indigo: In a recent important development on the ongoing issue, the DGCA granted IndiGo a temporary one-time exemption for certain night duty and FDTL restrictions for its A320 fleet, valid upto February 10, 2026. This relief is conditional and temporary, aimed to restoring the stability in airliners existing operations till the airline executes its recruitment plans which supports its operations as per the rule of DGCA.
Crisis handling Strategy: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers issued a formal apology and confirmed that the airline is implementing “calibrated adjustments” to its network. They have informed the DGCA that while they are aiming to achieve a stabilization by mid-December, along with complete adherence to the new FDTL rules across their entire schedule before the given deadline of February 2026 by DGCA.
Current Flight Status Live: The Competitive Landscape
It is good thing that the Indigo’s competitors like Air India have handled the transition to the new FDTL norms with only fewer flight disruptions, which highlighting their on time preparedness to abode the new law in the sector which lacked in Indigo may be due to its major operational volume.
Passengers must follow few caution on upcoming trip, as it is a critical time to continue check IndiGo flight status regularly.
Airline: IndiGo Flights, Check Status Via: Official IndiGo Website / App, SMS (Flight Status), or their “Plan B” feature. Recommended Action: Expect potential rescheduling. Secure timely refunds or free re-booking of flights if made mendatory
The government has also taken an immediate actions by imposing temporary fare caps on major routes to prevent the other airlines to extort passengers by hiking their fares which was observed immediate after the Indigo’s issue, this decision helps to reduce taking situational advantage of increasing higher prices by other airliners during this crisis situation of the major Indian airliner, due to airliner IndiGo’s troubles of its major 1000+ flights cancellation, government is acted swiftly to ensuring affordable travel options which made available at major airports and directions issued in good faith of the travellers including mandatory on time refunds.
