Inside IndiGo’s Turbulence: What Went Wrong And Why Flights Were Cancelled
IndiGo’s mass cancellations expose deep cracks in planning, staffing and compliance, raising questions over safety, pilot fatigue rules and whether the airline prioritised expansion over operational stability.
The Gist
The turmoil at IndiGo has revealed underlying issues within the airline, including staffing shortages and operational failures.
- Insiders report a silent rebellion among employees, coinciding with recruitment drives from rival airlines.
- Experts question whether updated Flight Duty Time Limitations are solely responsible for the cancellations.
- Industry leaders say that the scale of disruption indicates deeper systemic problems rather than just staffing constraints.
Over the past three days, more than 300 IndiGo flights have been cancelled across India, triggering chaos at major airports across the country and leaving thousands of passengers stranded. For many travellers, cancellations came after hours of waiting, with repeated delays before final notifications that their flights would not take off at all.
Videos circulating online show distressed passengers demanding answers as long queues formed at airline counters.
In a statement released on December 3, IndiGo attributed the operational collapse to a series of overlapping challenges.
“A multitude of unforeseen operational challenges, including 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 (Flight Duty Time Limitations) had a negative compounding impact on our operations in a way that was not feasible to be anticipated.”
As per reports, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has directed IndiGo to submit the causes of the ongoing disruption and outline its proposed mitigation measures.
The crisis has forced the country’s largest airline, operating over 2,200 flights daily, to issue multiple public statements. However, insiders suggest the turmoil was neither sudden nor unexpected, raising questions around IndiGo’s staffing shortages, aggressive scheduling, regulatory compliance and internal unrest.
In a letter to the staff, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers on Thursday said the airline’s immediate focus is restoring normal operations and improving punctuality, a goal he acknowledged won’t be easy.
A Brewing Employee Backlash
While chaos plays out publicly at airports, dissatisfaction has been brewing among IndiGo’s workforce for a while.
“Internally, there’s now a silent rebellion. Nobody is officially calling it a strike because they don’t want it to escalate into something formal,” an IndiGo pilot told The Core on condition of anonymity.
The breaking point, according to the source, coincided with an Emirates Airlines recruitment drive held in Mumbai (December 1), Bengaluru (December 3) and Delhi (December 5).
“Many cabin crew didn’t report to duty because they were attending those interviews. That set off a chain reaction, the system collapsed, and even ground staff in Mumbai staged a flash strike on December 3,” he added.
Are New FDTL Rules the Real Trigger?
One explanation offered publicly for the cancellation wave is compliance with updated Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL), rules designed to prevent pilot fatigue.
The updated FDTL rules, announced by the DGCA in January 2024, are designed to ensure pilots receive adequate rest, reducing fatigue and improving overall flight safety.
“Right now, the airline is trying to operate maximum flights with the minimum number of pilots. For years, the FDTL rules have been contentious. Every time the government tried to align FDTL with international safety standards, airlines resisted,” the pilot said.
But aviation experts dispute whether the rules alone could trigger this level of disruption.
Sam Thomas, president of the Airline Pilot's Association of India (ALPA), argues that IndiGo has used regulatory compliance as a negotiation tactic.
“Whenever a rule doesn’t suit them, they delay flights, create confusion, and then go to the regulator saying they can’t comply. And historically, it has worked for them,” he said.
The regulator has already given them enough time — two years — and even allowed phased implementation.
“They claimed they had enough pilots. The aviation minister himself said in Parliament that there was no shortage. So what happened now? These are tactics — and this time, they have backfired,” Thomas said.
Crew Shortage or Planning Failure?
While IndiGo maintains that staffing constraints are part of the problem, industry leaders said the scale of disruption points to a deeper structural failure.
“If 10 or 20 flights were cancelled or delayed, one could understand. But when we talk about 200–300 cancellations in a single day and massive delays across the network, this is no longer a minor operational issue — it’s a crisis,” CS Randhawa of the Federation of Indian Pilots told The Core.
IndiGo added more flights to its winter schedule (effective from 26th October 2025 till 28th March 2026), around 15,014 domestic departures per week, but made little effort to recruit additional pilots or crew, nor did it plan rosters to operate the expanded network efficiently.
“Other airlines prepared for compliance by reorganising schedules and staffing. You didn’t necessarily need more pilots — you just needed proper manpower planning. But IndiGo assumed it could influence the government and bypass pilot associations,” said the pilot.
Randhawa noted that IndiGo resumed operations of 50–60 Pratt & Whitney-powered aircraft that were previously grounded due to engine issues. Yet staffing did not scale proportionately.
“Towards the end of October and early November, the airline even offered to buy back pilot leave — and the response was lukewarm. Clearly, the demand-supply alignment between aircraft availability and crew planning has not been done properly.”
During the first phase of FDTL in July, instead of fixing rosters, IndiGo reduced the number of annual leave days for pilots. “Salaries stayed the same, workloads increased, and morale dropped sharply,” the pilot said.
Next, before the rollout of the second phase on November 1, IndiGo said it still couldn’t comply with FDTL.
“They offered to buy back pilots’ leave at 1.5 times gross salary. But that only made things worse — because it meant: ‘Work more, rest less — we’ll pay you for it.’ That’s not a safety culture. That’s desperation,” the pilot added.
What Happens Next?
Industry analysts believe the disruption is avoidable and temporary, if IndiGo immediately scales back aggressive scheduling.
“This disruption is artificial. They can fix it in two days — scale back schedules, and there will be no passenger impact. The problem isn’t regulation, it’s poor planning and excessive cost-cutting,” Thomas said.
For now, passengers continue waiting, hoping the airline and regulator act swiftly, before India's aviation sector faces an even bigger crisis.
